How does the cosmic background radiation relate to the Big Bang?

What will be an ideal response?


After the Big Bang the universe was filled with only radiation. It was a radiation dominated universe. After protons and neutrons formed the universe was opaque to radiation. Photons couldn't travel far without interacting with an electron. So nothing was visible. At the time of the decoupling, the universe become transparent to radiation and photons could travel with scattering off electrons except at very specific wavelengths. The artifact of this period of decoupling, when photons were first able to travel great distances, is the 3 K cosmic background radiation.

Physics & Space Science

You might also like to view...

Sketch the circuit or network between four opaque body surfaces.

What will be an ideal response?

Physics & Space Science

Heliocentric Solar System model

A. Solar Eclipses

B. Alpha Centauri

C. Proxima Centauri

D. Lunar Eclipses

E. Nicolas Copernicus

F. Claudius Ptolemy

Physics & Space Science

Because S-waves do not travel through Earth's outer core, scientists inferred that the outer core is

A) impenetrable. B) molten liquid. C) solid. D) very dense.

Physics & Space Science

Refracting Telescope: You have available lenses of focal lengths 2.0 cm, 4.0 cm, 8.0 cm, and 16.0 cm. If you could use any two of these lenses to build a telescope, what is the maximum magnification you could achieve for comfortable viewing of a planet?

A. 2.0 B. 4.0 C. 6.0 D. 8.0

Physics & Space Science