Transcript Document

Microwave Background
by
Robert Nemiroff
Michigan Tech
Physics X: About This Course
• Officially "Extraordinary Concepts in Physics"
• Being taught for credit at Michigan Tech
o Light on math, heavy on concepts
o Anyone anywhere is welcome
• No textbook required
o Wikipedia, web links, and lectures only
o Find all the lectures with Google at:
 "Starship Asterisk" then "Physics X"
o
http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewforum.php?f=39
Microwave Background Radiation
• Penzias & Wilson try to map Galaxy radio
emission with horn shaped antenna
• Find strange hiss in all directions
• Can’t eliminate it
o
Not warm pigeon poop
• Can’t explain it
Horn Antenna used by Penzias and Wilson to detect the cosmic
microwave background radiation.
http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~tohline/astr1102/Pics/Fig28-05.jpg
Microwave Background Radiation
• Photons from when the universe was only 400,000
years old
• Originally 3000 K, now only 2.7 K
• Show that Earth is moving with respect to CMBR
• Spot distribution shows universe is 70% dark energy,
13.7 billion years old
CMBR Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe
Credit: DMR, COBE, NASA, Four-Year Sky Map
APOD: 2006 October 8
COBE All-Sky Map
Credit: COBE Project, DMR, NASA
APOD: 2006 October 7
Antarctica Hears Little Normal Matter in the Big Bang
Credit & Copyright: DASI, CARA, NSF
APOD: 2001 May 1
The Race to Reveal Our Universe
Credit: BOOMERANG Project, NSF
APOD: 2000 May 9
WMAP Resolves the Universe
Credit: WMAP Science Team, NASA
APOD: 2005 September 25
Microwave Milky Way
Credit: ESA, Planck HFI & LFI Consortia
APOD: 2010 July 9