Fact Sheet
Creation's Afterglow
A satellite scheduled for launch on Saturday will study the "afterglow" of the Big Bang, a background radiation that permeates the entire universe. This image, produced by the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite, mapped tiny fluctuations in the background glow, which represent small differences in density. The first stars and galaxies grew from these cosmic "seeds." MAP -- the Microwave Anisotropy Probe -- will see even tinier variations in this background glow.
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