Interferometer Maps Cosmic Microwaves on the Cheap

摘要

Four years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite stunned the world with the first direct image ever of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)--the faint afterglow of the big bang. Because the details of the radiation show how matter was distributed through the newborn universe some 15 billion years ago, such images hold "the promise of explaining the origin of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and voids that are observed today," says Ed Cheng of NASA's Goddard Space Right Center. But while COBE was a first, its resolution was poor.