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 ...

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 ...

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.

The Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, is radiation that fills the universe and can be detected in every direction. Microwaves are invisible to the naked eye so they cannot be seen without ...

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 ...