Physics: Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation

Physics: Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
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Astrophysics Electromagnetism Thermodynamics
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation By: Penzias and Wilson (1964) The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology.

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Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (1964) Performed by: Penzias and Wilson The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology.

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What makes Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiati on significant? This experiment is remembered because it gave scientists a way to directly test a theory about nature rather than just theorizing about it. The result either confirmed or challenged what physicists believed at the time.

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About Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology. In 1964, American physicist Arno Allan Penzias and radio-a stronomer Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB), estimating its temperature as 3.5 K, as they experimented with the Holmdel Horn Antenna. The new measurements were accepted as important evidence for a hot early Universe (Big Bang theory) and as evidence against the rival steady state theory as theoretical work around 1950 showed the need for a CMB for consistency with the simplest relativistic universe models. In 1978, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint measurement. There had been a prior measurement of the cosmic background radiation (CMB) by Andrew McKellar in 1941 at an effective temperature of 2.3 K using CN stellar absorption lines observed by W. S. Adams. Although no reference to the CMB is made by McKellar, it was not until much later after the Penzias and Wilson measurements, that the significance of this earlier measurement was understood.