What do Microwaves show us? Beck Bray & Patrick Meyer 05.13.01 In the 1960's a startling discovery was made quite by accident. A pair of scientists at Bell Laboratories detected background noise using a special low noise antenna. The strange thing about the noise was that it was coming from every direction and did not seem to vary in intensity at all. If the static were from something on our world, like radio transmissions from a nearby airport control tower, it would only come from one direction, not everywhere. The scientists soon realized they had discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation.         This radiation fills the entire Universe and is no stronger or weaker in any direction. It has only tiny fluctuations that were detected by the very sensitive space craft known as the Cosmic Background Explorer, or COBE. The image above is a COBE image of the cosmic microwave background, the pink and blue colors showing these tiny fluctuations. This radiation is believed to be a clue to the Universe's brilliant beginning, known as the Big Bang. Astronomers believe that this energy, which was trapped by electrons in the early, hot universe, escaped when the universe cooled enough for hydrogen atoms to form.     If you had a sensitive microwave telescope in your house you would detect a faint signal leaking out of your microwave oven, and from various other man-made sources, but also a faint signal coming from all directions that you pointed. This is the Cosmic Microwave Background.   CLICK HERE for more information! ©2001 NASAkids.com , Science@NASA  Beck Bray & Patrick Meyer ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.