The cosmic microwave background can help scientists piece together the history of the universe. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

So much happened in the earliest moments of the universe. Elementary particles appeared, the first nuclei of hydrogen and helium, and fluctuations of energy and matter set into motion the formation of ...

The earliest galaxies may have scrambled our reading of the Universe. A new study challenges the traditional interpretation of the cosmic microwave background, this fossil light from the Big Bang.

Two scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, discovered the cosmic microwave background in the mid-1960s while testing a large radio antenna for Bell Laboratories. They detected a constant signal ...

A glow undetectable to the human eye permeates the universe. This light is the remnant signature of the cosmic beginning — a dense, hot fireball that burst forth and created all mass, energy, and time ...

Cosmic microwave background is a sea of radiation that provides us with evidence for the big bang. When around 1916 Einstein first used general relativity to build a cosmic model, he followed the ...