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The Universe in Three Pictures
Mar. 21st, 2013 04:43 pmThe ESA just released a "cosmic microwave background" picture of the Universe from when it was less than 380,000 years-old.
Not only does the picture show the evolution of the Universe, it also shows the evolution of the technology used to map the Universe soon after the Big Bang. In 1989 NASA sent up COBE to examine the early days of the Universe, then 10 years later, NASA sent up WMAP. And now, ESA has the Planck space telescope. The pictures appear to show the same image, but the resolution has gotten much better.
2013: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_reveals_an_almost_perfect_Universe
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/03/planck_cmb/12583930-4-eng-GB/Planck_CMB_large.jpg
2001: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/121238/index.html
1989: http://aether.lbl.gov/www/projects/cobe/
Not only does the picture show the evolution of the Universe, it also shows the evolution of the technology used to map the Universe soon after the Big Bang. In 1989 NASA sent up COBE to examine the early days of the Universe, then 10 years later, NASA sent up WMAP. And now, ESA has the Planck space telescope. The pictures appear to show the same image, but the resolution has gotten much better.
2013: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_reveals_an_almost_perfect_Universe
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/03/planck_cmb/12583930-4-eng-GB/Planck_CMB_large.jpg
2001: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/121238/index.html
1989: http://aether.lbl.gov/www/projects/cobe/
