Initial Discovery

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) was initially proposed by George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman as a uniform radiation that would permeate space everywhere as a residual effect left behind from the early Universe, after the Big Bang. The theory was a contributor for the overall Big Bang theory, which was a rival to the then popular steady state theory. The steady state Universe model was one that theorized the Universe was neither expanding or contracting and has since been considered obsolete. The CMB idea was proposed in 1948, but it was not observed until the 1960s, and the people who found it did not even recognize what it was at first. In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were using the Holmdel satellite antenna to observe radiation within the Milkyway for their own private research. When attempting to zero the satellite callibration on dark space, they found something extraordinary. Within the black space, there was radiation that was not being emitted by anything. After some trouble shooting and head scratching, they got wind of an idea being proposed by Robert Dicke, David Wilkinson and Peter Roll that explained how the CMB exists and what it would mean if it was found. After the two teams put their heads together and published two papers, the discovery quickly gained authority and further evidence has made the Big Bang theory the most accurate, according to observations. The majority of these observations are from the CMB, making it a powerful tool over the past half a century.