Current Events > How does the Holmdel Horn Antenna detect the Big Bang exactly?

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It's said that cosmic microwave background radiation supports what they theorize as the big bang remnants.

How do they know that radiation is from the Big Bang if the Big Bang is only a theory?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/09/16/how_the_holmdel_horn_antenna_in_new_jersey_changed_our_understanding_of.html

"Only a theory"

The cosmic microwave background radiation. Essentially, the first light ever given off by the universe when the density dropped to the point where matter deionized.

We can literally see it in the sky.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/1/AAeEwGAAC5A9.jpg

And with basic knowledge of relativity, universal expansion rates and Maxwell's laws of light dynamics, the math doesn't lie.

DarkRoast posted...

The cosmic microwave background radiation. Essentially, the first light ever given off by the universe when the density dropped to the point where matter deionized.

We can literally see it in the sky.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/1/AAeEwGAAC5A9.jpg

And with basic knowledge of relativity, universal expansion rates and Maxwell's laws of light dynamics, the math doesn't lie.

How does the first light given from the universe prove the radiation is from the Big Bang? I'm not denying the Big Bang, I'm just wondering how this device came to that conclusion of proof. I was just reading about it and didn't understand and basically wanted to know more. The math is certainly convincing I'm sure of that. Thanks for giving me some more to read about :)

Theory has a different meaning in science.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory

--Zero- posted...

How does the first light given from the universe prove the radiation is from the Big Bang? I'm not denying the Big Bang, I'm just wondering how this device came to that conclusion of proof. I was just reading about it and didn't understand and basically wanted to know more. The math is certainly convincing I'm sure of that. Thanks for giving me some more to read about :)

It's actually more basic physics than you might think. Basically, Hubble realized that the Doppler effect with sound (wavelength changes depending on whether something is moving towards or away from you) also applies to light (objects moving away from you get longer wavelengths and red shift) and using some surprisingly basic mathematics regarding the distance of known objects in the universe, we can actually calculate when the universe was extremely hot and dense (the CMB)