New WMAP results: quantum fluctuations, galaxies, and the first stars

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (or WMAP, to save me typing about 50 letters) was launched in 2001 to study the light that flooded the Universe from its earliest moments. The birth of the Universe was hot, and so the light created in the event was extremely high-energy. But as the Universe expanded, that light lost energy. In a sense, the light used up energy to fight that expansion to get to us (sort of (but only roughly, not exactly!) like the way you have to use more energy to walk into the wind). The exact details are a bit complicated, but basically, after more than 13 billion years, the light from the Bang has lost so much energy that it's now very low energy microwaves. WMAP was designed to look at this kind of light. Other satellites have done this before, but WMAP has better eyesight, if you will: ...