cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)
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Cosmology Demystified
That has got to be the single strangest post title I’ve ever written. Of all the whacky branches of science out there, cosmology almost takes the cake — second only, I think, to the downright trippy world of quantum mechanics.…
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The Universe: A Timeline of Discovery
Aaaaand she’s back! Sorry for the delay — school had me burnt out! Consider this: humanity has existed for just a few thousand years, and for most of that time, our existence has been constrained to one little blue mote…
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A Cosmological Timeline
We started covering cosmology way back in April. And since then, we’ve explored quite a bit — in fact, the grandest story the universe has to offer. We’ve followed the universe from the first fractions of a second after the…
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Cosmology: How Do We Know?
Have you ever wondered how the heck astronomers think we know anything about cosmology? It’s a truly mind-blowing field of study, full of whacky concepts like the shape of empty space, the expansion of the universe, and dark energy. More…
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The Proof in the Afterglow
In 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity. This theory predicts that, since gravity works by bending space-time, it also determines the shape of space — and the shape of the universe as a whole. In 1929, Edwin Hubble…
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The Big Bang Theory, Revised
Imagine a time before stars and galaxies existed, before free-floating subatomic particles combined to form the first atoms, before the synthesis of the first atomic nuclei… Wait a second — this sounds familiar! Way back in May, we rewound the…
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Why do Galaxies Exist?
When we look out into the sky, we see a universe filled with galaxies. Galaxies are the second-largest “structure” we’ve covered in depth on this blog. The largest so far have been galaxy clusters, which are just what the name…
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What is the Cosmological Principle?
What if I were to ask you: Are there any unique places in the universe? That is, does any one location in the universe have a special vantage point? Does the universe look different from different locations? You might say…
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From the First Nuclei to First Light
When we talk about the first 30 minutes of time, we describe the universe expanding and cooling. As the universe cooled, the nuclear reactions that produced the first atomic nuclei slowed and stopped. But it was only relatively cool. The…
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The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
What if I told you that this was an actual image of the night sky? Well…alright, I admit it’s more like a map. Specifically, a map of the cosmic microwave background radiation, often known simply as the CMB. This is…
