Fact Sheet
Creation's Glow
This map of the universe shows tiny variations in temperature a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. These variations allowed matter to begin clumping together to form the first stars and galaxies. The map was compiled from data from COBE, a satellite launched in 1989. It measured variations in the cosmic microwave background, the faint "afterglow" of the Big Bang, which fills the universe. The differences in temperature are only a few thousandths of a degree, but are exagerrated in this map, in which the warmest temperatures are in red. [NASA]
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