13 Iconic Space Photos That Redefined Human Perspective

5. The Cosmic Microwave Background: Echoes of the Big Bang

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the afterglow of the Big Bang, providing a snapshot of the universe when it was just 380,000 years old. Captured by the COBE satellite in 1992 and later refined by the WMAP and Planck missions, the CMB image is a map of the universe's earliest light. This image has been instrumental in confirming the Big Bang theory and understanding the universe's age, composition, and development. The CMB's uniformity and slight fluctuations offer clues about the universe's initial conditions and the formation of large-scale structures.