8 More Science Facts To Make You Sound Clever At Parties

3. "We Can See The Big Bang"

So, you've seen that map of the cosmic microwave background, right? (Well, you have now, anyway) It is quite often described as the "echo" of the big bang, perhaps because it can be picked up as "sound" in the form of radio static. However, this isn't entirely accurate. Instead of being a relic of the Big Bang, the CMB is more like the Big Flash. That is, the mind-blowingly bright flash of light that came with the big bang, but it's just gotten a little stretched over time. When the universe first exploded into being (the jury's still out on how that one happened), it was hotter and brighter than the surface of the brightest star, but it was also very dense. As the universe continued to expand, the wavelength of this light was stretched so much that it went from one end of the spectrum to the other. When we look up into the dark night sky, it is actually flooded with light, but just too far down the electromagnetic spectrum for us to be able to see it, but this radiation permeates every part of the universe with astonishing uniformity.