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Direct observation of structure in the cosmic microwave background

Abstract

Temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background are a key prediction of cosmological models of structure formation in the early Universe. Ground-based multi-frequency radio observations of the microwave background reveal well defined features that are not of atmospheric or Galactic origin; instead, they delineate the primordial density perturbations from which the structure in the present Universe originated. The amplitude of these perturbations confirms the earlier statistical detection by the COBE satellite.

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Hancock, S., Davies, R., Lasenby, A. et al. Direct observation of structure in the cosmic microwave background. Nature 367, 333–338 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/367333a0

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