The universe is microwaving itself. A mystery signal discovered in the 1960s led to a Nobel prize.
In this video, Dianna explores one of the most mysterious discoveries in physics – a constant microwave signal that seemed to be coming from everywhere in the universe. It turned out to be light from an unusual process 13.8 billion years ago.
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MANY thanks to: Nick Lucid, Katie Mack, Derek Muller, Henry Reich, Thom Ory and Edward Wright for helping with this video!
Thanks to Levi Butner for inspiriting the idea for this video by asking me WAY too many questions during work! 🙂
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Creator/Host: Dianna Cowern
Editor: Levi Butner
Writing: Valerie Bentivegna
Research/Copy Editing: Dianna Cowern
Sources:
Temperature and wavelength of original CMB:
http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~jwillis/teaching/astr405/astr405_lecture3.pdf
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~ryden/ast162_9/notes39.html
ESA Planck References:
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Planck
NASA WMAP Reference:
https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov
Interview with John G. Cramer (via email)
https://kipac.stanford.edu/highlights/understanding-dark-energy-through-cmb-observations
Nobel prize photo – Alexander Mahmoud 2018
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200207/history.cfm