Cosmic backgrounds - Astronomy Magazine

Published: April 23, 2012

Photo by ESA/Planck consortium

The cosmic background radiation currently emits mainly at microwave wavelengths. The cosmic background radiation used to have a shorter wavelength (higher energy) when the universe was younger and smaller. When the universe was 1 million years old, the cosmic background was mostly infrared radiation. Today we observe photons emitted from stars and galaxies in the cosmos at all frequencies.

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