Interpretation of cosmic microwave background

Abstract

The discovery of microwave background radiation by Penzias and Wilson¹ is one of the most interesting events in observational astronomy in recent years. On the basis of the first observations at a single wavelength, the radiation was interpreted² as being of the black-body type, and it was concluded that this was the remnant of the primordial radiation of a big-bang universe. Later results by different observers have strengthened this interpretation. Indeed it is now claimed^3,4 that the black-body curve applies for a wavelength range of 1 : 90, and corresponds to a temperature T = 2.68° K. The observers⁵ go as far as to state that the exact black-body intensity curve ∂ (v) ∝ v³/e^hv/kT-1 (1) fits the observations better than the "grey-body" approximation at long wavelengths—namely ∂ (v) ∝ v² (2).