Quick questions on Origins of the elements and the Big Bang: HSC Physics Module 8

2short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.

What is the cosmic microwave background?

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Penzias and Wilson (1964) discovered an isotropic microwave hiss in their antenna that could not be attributed to instrument noise or known sources. The spectrum measured precisely by the COBE satellite (1989) is the most perfect blackbody known in nature, with

T = 2.725\,\text{K}

What is timeline of the early universe?

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The Big Bang model does not describe "what came before"; it describes the evolution of the universe from a hot dense state of which we have direct evidence (the CMB and primordial element abundances).

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