COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND (CMB)

About: 

• What is it? The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint cosmic background radiation filling all space. 
  
  
• Origins: It is thought to be leftover radiation/Heat from the Big Bang, or the time when the universe began. The universe began 13.8 billion years ago, and the CMB dates back to about 400,000 years after the Big Bang. 
  
  
• Visibility: One can't see the CMB with naked eye, but it is everywhere in the universe. It is invisible to humans because it is so cold, just 2.725 degrees above absolute zero. Its radiation is most visible in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. 
  
  
• Discovery: The accidental discovery of the CMB in 1964 by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson earned them the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. 
  
  
• Significance: The CMB is useful to scientists because it helps us learn how the early universe was formed. It is at a uniform temperature with only small fluctuations visible. By studying these fluctuations, cosmologists can learn about the origin of galaxies. 
  
  
• CMB-Bharat: CMB-Bharat is a proposal for comprehensive next generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) mission in international collaboration with major Indian contribution so as to reveal the first clear signature of quantum gravity in the very early universe.