Cosmic ripples come into focus

The most detailed map of ripples in radiation left over from the big bang – known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB – will let cosmologists hone their theories of how the universe evolved. This new view of the CMB comes from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. Just how sharp is it? Find out using the slides below, which show the Planck map and its predecessors alongside corresponding images of the Earth, blurred to mimic the cosmic maps’ resolution. 〈 Previous Next 〉 Ripples revealed: COBE, 1992 George Smootof the University of California at Berkeley said that viewing the CMB map produced by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorersatellite was like "looking at God". Maybe if you're short-sighted – viewing the Earth at the same resolution, we can make out the continents, but little more. But as it was the first time ripples in the CMB had come into view, Smoot's excitement was justified; later he would share a Nobel prizefor the work. Source: NASA/European Space Agency; graphic by Adam Becker and Peter Aldhous, published 22 March 2013.