Cosmic Background Radiation Map

The map of the cosmic microwave background radiation obtained by the american wmap satellite: Map of the cosmic background radiation at 3 millimeters This “wall of light“ is called the surface of last scattering since it was the last time most of the cmb photons directly scattered off of matter.

A map of the cmb radiation provides the most distant and oldest image of the universe. The root mean square variations are only 18 μk, after subtracting out a dipole anisotropy from the doppler shift of the background radiation. Map of intensity variations in the cosmic background radiation from cobe satellite data.

This is a whole sky planck space telescope image of the cosmic.

When still less than 400,000 years old, the original universe was formed by a soup of protons, electrons and photons at just under 3,000ºc. The radiation is isotropic to roughly one part in 100,000: The cosmic microwave background radiation is a remnant of the big bang and the fluctuations are the imprint of density contrast in the early universe. However, tiny temperature variations or fluctuations (at the part per million level) can offer great insight into the origin, evolution, and content of the universe.