In: Physics
What is the cosmic microwave background and what role does it play in cosmology?
The CMB or cosmic microwave background is the thermal radiation left over from the time of recombination in Big Bang cosmology.The CMB is a faint glow of light that fills the universe, falling on Earth from every direction with nearly uniform intensity.The CMB is the oldest light that we can see.
This residual radiation play a very important role in the study of cosmology because it bears on it the fossil imprint of those particles, a pattern of miniscule intensity variations from which we can decipher the vital statistics of the universe.