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  • Nautilus

    We Bathe Always in the Glow of the Big Bang

    by Brian Koberlein Mar 21, 2014 4 minutes

    A map of the cosmic microwave background from the COBE satellite.NASA

    It was born when the Universe was just 10 human heartbeats old. A small burst of electromagnetic energy known as a photon. A primordial particle of light.

    At that time the Universe was a blazing hot mix of ionized hydrogen and helium, a sea of positively charged nuclei and electrons at full boil. This sea was so hot and dense that the photon was constantly scattered, or bounced around between them, never traveling far between. For 380,000 years, the light was scattered as the Universe cooled, until finally ions and electrons slowed—free to begin a very long journey.

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