Where Does the Cosmic Microwave Background Come From?

We know that the universe is filled with a background radiation that is a relic of the Big Bang. How was it discovered? Who came up with the idea? How do we observe it? How do we know it's really there? Where did it come from?

This is the sixth of the videos in my new series of Cosmology. I'm going through Dr. Barbara Ryden's textbook "Introduction to Cosmology". If you follow along, you'll get a full upper-division undergraduate course in Cosmology. I used this textbook at William Paterson University.

This course will cover the current state of the science of Cosmology. To follow along, it'll be a good idea for you to ge to know your calculus. Here are the topics of this video:

Introductory Cosmology
Chapter 02: Fundamental Observations
Section 05: Cosmic Microwave Background

Some things covered:
The Nature of Photons.
Blackbody Radiation.
An overlooked origin story to the CMB, starring: Ralph Alpher, Robert Hermann, George Gamove, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, and Robert Dicke.
COBE, WMAP, and Planck CMB Missions.
The origin of the CMB from Quark-Anti-Quark soup to the epochs of Recombination and Decoupling.

More on Setting the Record Straight:
What I saw at the AAS:

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[Altekameraden]

Random fun interjection - Kitchen microwave oven cavity magnetron waveguide or collector releases non-monochromatic frequency light on average between 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz. There is a dependence on the physical properties of the food item within which determine which frequency provides the best average standing wave to excite permanent dipole moment of water. FCC required a single frequency, so industry picked 2.45GHz, even though the dipole moment interaction and some absorption occurs at a local effect broadened frequency range.

A good read "A study of a typical household microwave oven conducted by Michal Soltysiak, Malgorzata Celuch, and Ulrich Erle, and published in IEEE's Microwave Symposium Digest".

[Truth_Teller_]

I once tried to cook a frozen burrito in the cosmic microwave background, but it just ended up more frozen.

[bryandraughn]

I'd like to learn more about the "co moving" reference frame.
Is the expansion locked in step perfectly or are there exceptions?
Also, the "doubling rate" of the whole universe, a tiny centimeter, etc...
Always trying to break the recession velocity apart from the expansion in my head because I know that nothing is moving around much at all.
Maybe some helpful visualizations?
Thanks for the wonderful videos!

[mnbeams]

i LOVE YOU !! thank you for your videos im in college for astrophysics my dream is cosmology :):)

[ottolehikoinen]

Assuming anisotropy though the CMB is not exactly that, we might as well assume dark matter to be the veil over our eyes that prevents us seeing the antimatter universe. I might have hit the notifications on as I've seen many of your good videos on the feed. Please continue. I can't get the maths, so just trying to get consepts.

[t.a.r.s]

12:29 I did'nt know Kobe Briant was so involved in this scientific stuff. Impressive!
(Not fun? Ok I 'll take the window)