Cosmic Microwave Background
You are looking at the smoking gun of the Big Bang, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background. This is the oldest light in the universe, originating from the hot dense plasma which filled all of space at the beginning of time. This light is extremely smooth and uniform, with only exceedingly small variations when looking in one direction or another. Today, the temperature of this light is just 2.73 degrees above absolute zero, with most of space being within about 1 part in 100,000 of this temperature. The contrast of this image has been greatly enhanced, so as to only look at the variations in the light. Blue areas are colder than average, while red are hotter.
Cosmic Microwave Background
You are looking at the smoking gun of the Big Bang, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background. This is the oldest light in the universe, originating from the hot dense plasma which filled all of space at the beginning of time. This light is extremely smooth and uniform, with only exceedingly small variations when looking in one direction or another. Today, the temperature of this light is just 2.73 degrees above absolute zero, with most of space being within about 1 part in 100,000 of this temperature. The contrast of this image has been greatly enhanced, so as to only look at the variations in the light. Blue areas are colder than average, while red are hotter.