NASA Releases Stunning Images of Our Infant Universe

(lft) Dr. Charles Bennett, WMAP Principal Investigator from GSFC, Dr. David Spergel, WMAP co-investigator from Princeton, and Dr. Anne Kinney, Director of Astronomy and Physics from NASA Headquarters reveals image of fulll-sky map of the oldest light in the universe: a "baby picture" of the universe. Photo by Chris Gunn/293

A striking "baby picture" of the Universe was released this week. The image contains such stunning detail that it may be one of the most important scientific results of recent years.

Scientists using NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), during a sweeping 12-month observation of the entire sky, captured the new cosmic portrait, capturing the afterglow of the big bang, called the cosmic microwave background.

"We've captured the infant universe in sharp focus, and from this portrait we can now describe the universe with unprecedented accuracy," said Dr. Charles L. Bennett of Goddard and the WMAP Principal Investigator. "The data are solid, a real gold mine," he said.

One of the biggest surprises revealed in the data is the first generation of stars to shine in the universe first ignited only 200 million years after the big bang, much earlier than many scientists had expected.

For the complete are article on the image captured from the WMAP, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0206mapresults.html