Stone to Silicon

Math & science · 1965

Cosmic microwave background

Penzias and Wilson find a faint microwave glow from every direction, the Big Bang's afterglow.

The 2.7 kelvin radiation confirmed the hot Big Bang. The COBE, WMAP and Planck satellites later mapped its ripples, fixing the universe's age at about 13.8 billion years.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 3