Dear bapowell, thanks for catching the typo. The general access site which has downloadable color diagrams is <map.gsfc.nasa.gov>. There is information here that is helpful where the balloon-raisin metaphor leaves off. Also, here now is the citation of the PiP article I recommend:
Alpher...
This "gap" from the initial "big bang" and observed CMBR is about 380,000 years. The composition of the universe has changed, the first period being dominated by neutrinos. Repeated reports from the 1991 Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe have provided most of the data from which the current...
To Remmeler and QuantunHop: The expanding balloon metaphor was often used by RAA to explain this to lay audiences. From any position, one sees expansion. There is no center or "privileged" position from which to observe or measure.
No one position is privileged. Wherever you are, the you see expansion as a Doppler shift.. 13 million years, if we agree on that tentatively, is as far back as we can see now. Measured from the earth, as Penzias and Wilson did, or space, as tbe COBE did, you get a blackbody Planck spectrum...
Robin Anderson, thank you for your response. I was 10 years old when the observation of the CMBR was announced. Knowing RAA and RCH very well, I have been able to follow developments in the acceptance of the Big Bang theory closely. Conceptually, G. Gamow contributed the idea of "hot, dense"...
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR, initially) is colloquially referred to as the ambient temperature of space, or "the temperature of space in all directions." As the universe is expanding, that is, all objects appear to be moving away from each other, we would expect this to...
How does one convert measurements in radio astronomical terms to temperature (Kelvin)? Specifically: Penzias & Wilson's measurement of CMB was "excess temperature at 4080 Mc/s." HOW does this yield a "value of about 3.5 degrees Kelvin higher than expected?" Basically, how do you get from...