Secrets of the Cosmic Microwave Background

You can learn more about CuriosityStream at

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to

Check out the new Space Time Merch Store!

Support Space Time on Patreon

Hook up an old antenna to your TV and scan between channels. The static buzz you hear is mostly due to the ambient radio produced by our noisy pre-galactic civilization. But around one percent of that buzz is something very different – it’s the cosmic microwave background radiation – the remnant of the heat-glow released when the hot, dense early universe became transparent for the first time. It sound likes random static, but that buzz contains an incredible wealth of hidden information. It holds the secrets of the universe’s fiery beginning,

Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime

Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime

Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com

Comment on Reddit

Help translate our videos!

Sound Waves from the Beginning of Time

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd

Written by Matt O'Dowd

Graphics by Luke Maroldi

Directing by Andrew Kornhaber

It’s not surprising that scientists have spent half a century and built multiple satellites to unlock the mysteries of the cosmic microwave background. We’ve delved into its nature before – from its formation 380,000 years after the Big Bang, to its 1964 discovery by Penzias and Wilson with the Holmdel Horn Antenna, to its increasingly accurate mapping across the sky with ever-better satellites. It all culminated in this – the Planck satellite’s map of the CMB.

Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters:

Big Bang:

Anton Lifshits

coolascats

David Nicklas

Fabrice Eap

Juan Benet

Justin Lloyd

Tim Davis

Quasar:

James Flowers

Mark Rosenthal

Tambe Barsbay

Vinnie Falco

Hypernova:

chuck zegar

Danton Spivey

Donal Botkin

Edmund Fokschaner

Jens Theisen

John Hofmann

Jordan Young

Joseph Salomone

kkm

Mark Heising

Matthew O'Connor

Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters:

Alexey Eromenko

Antonio Ruiz

Bradley Jenkins

Brandon Labonte

Buruk Aregawi

Carlo Mogavero

Daniel Lyons

David Behtala

David Crane

David Schmidt

Dustan Jones

Geoffrey Short

Greg Weiss

Jack Frosch

James Hughes

James Quintero

Jinal Doshi

JJ Bagnell

John Webber

Jon Folks

Jonah

Joseph Emison

Josh Thomas

Kenneth F Leonard

Kevin Warne

Kyle Hofer

Malte Ubl

Mark Vasile

Nathan Hitchings

Nicholas Rose

Nick Virtue

Ratfeast

Richard Broman

Scott Gossett

Sigurd Ruud Frivik

Tim Crookham

Tim Stephani

Tommy Mogensen

سلطان الخليفي