Cosmic Black-Body Radiation--A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s

1.) Planck Collaboration, European Space Agency (ESA).

The Planck Satellite Cosmic Microwave Background All-Sky-Map, 2013.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang and a snapshot of the oldest light in the universe, imprinted on the sky when the universe was just 380 000 years old and a fraction of its current size. The colour differences depict minute temperature fluctuations in this primordial radiation and correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today. The CMB was the definitive proof of the Big Bang theory and is the foundation of modern cosmology. Since its discovery fifty years ago in 1965, the CMB has been measured extensively using both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial instruments - with this All-Sky-Map, taken over the course of four years by the ESA Planck Satellite, being the latest and most detailed of such measurements. It represents the most precise view of the infant cosmos ever made.

Image: European Space Agency, Planck Collaboration.

2.) R. H. Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson.

Cosmic Black-Body Radiation.

Palmer Physical Laboratory. Princeton, New Jersey, May 4. 1965.

Typescript. Folio. (270 x 215 mm.), pp.[12].

Typescript of Cosmic Black-Body Radiation; the theoretical part of the two companion papers announcing the discovery of the CMB, with annotations in pencil by the co-author P. J. E. Peebles, who predicted the CMB to be measurable and was responsible for the theoretical calculations relating to its search at Princeton. Peebles has made many major contributions to the Big Bang model and the large scale structure of the universe. Long before it was considered a serious, quantitative branch of physics, Peebles was studying physical cosmology and has done much to establish its respectability. He is often referred to as the father of modern cosmology. Cosmic Black Body Radiation was first printed in The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 142, No. 1, July 1965, (see item 3).

Provenance: personal copy, P. J. E. Peebles.

3.) R. H. Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson.

Cosmic Black-Body Radiation.

Reprinted for private circulation from The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 142, no. 1, July 1965.

8vo (240 x 170 mm.), pp. [8]. Grey printed wraps.

Rare offprint of the theoretical part of the two companion papers announcing the discovery of the CMB. By 1964 the physicist Robert Dicke with his team at Princeton had developed a measuring device to search for the radiation to prove his theory of the “primordial fireball.” According to this theory, approximately a second after its formation, the universe was a near-ideal “black-body” in thermal equilibrium at a temperature above 10000000000° Kelvin. This temperature decreased as the universe expanded and the matter and radiation in it cooled, leaving a measurable remnant radiation at the microwave end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Before Dicke and his team could prove this theory observationally they were contacted by two radio astronomers; Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson from neighbouring Bell Labs who had, albeit unwittingly, measured exactly this radiation. Dicke and Peebles’ theoretical interpretation of Penzias and Wilson's results, outlined in this paper, showed that theories of the early universe had moved from pure speculation into well-tested physics. Further experiments later revealed the CMB radiation to be the most perfect “black-body” ever measured in nature.

Provenance: personal copy, P. J. E. Peebles.

4.) A. A. Penzias, R. W. Wilson.

A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s.

Reprinted for private circulation from The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 142, no. 1, July 1965.

8vo (240 x 170 mm.), pp. [4]. White printed wraps.

Rare offprint of the observational part of the companion papers announcing the discovery of the CMB. The two radio astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias measured faint excess radio noise while calibrating their horn antenna for research into galactic emissions at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in 1964. This excess temperature of 3° Kelvin was an unexpected anomaly in their precision instruments, and a year of dedicated tests followed in which they excluded all known radio sources. Finally, having by chance heard of Dicke and Peebles’ research into models of an evolving universe starting with a hot Big Bang and leaving a radiation signature of a specific temperature in the microwave spectrum, Penzias contacted Dicke, who confirmed that the excess measurement was precisely this remnant radiation. Both teams then published papers announcing their joint discovery. Penzias and Wilson’s A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s won them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.

Provenance: personal copy, R. Wilson.

5.) A. A. Penzias, R. W. Wilson.

Dicke’s “Fireball” and “A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080/Mc/s.”

Bell Telephone Laboratories Technical Memorandum. May 24, 1965.

Typescript. Folio (275 x 210 mm.), pp. [22], unbound.

Rare copy of a Bell Labs Technical Memorandum containing the typescript of Penzias and Wilson’s CMB paper signed by both authors, as well as a photocopy of the typescript the Dicke et al paper, including the famous Possible Thermal History of the Universe diagram.

Provenance: personal copy, R. Wilson.

6.) A. A. Penzias, R. W. Wilson.

Measurement of Flux Density of CasA at 4080 Mc/s.

Monograph Volume 5095 of Bell Telephone Systems. Technical Publications. Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1965.

Folio (275 x 212 mm.), pp. 7. Grey and blue printed wraps.

Rare copy of a Bell Labs monograph containing a scientific paper Penzias and Wilson first presented at the American Astronomical Society in Montreal in 1964 and later referred to in their CMB discovery paper for technical background information on the measuring system they had developed. After Bell Labs left the communications satellite business in 1963, Penzias and Wilson converted the equipment to carry out astrophysical research. This paper outlines the process of surveying emissions from Cassiopeia A (CasA), a supernova remnant. In it they describe measuring a faint uniform excess noise source, which was then assumed to come from the apparatus but later revealed itself to be the CMB.

Provenance: personal copy, R. Wilson.

7.) D. C. Hogg, R. W. Wilson.

A precise measurement of the Gain of a Large Horn-Reflector Antenna.

Reprinted from The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. XLIV, No. 6, July - August, 1965.

8vo (228 x 151 mm.), pp. [12]. White printed wraps.

Offprint of a scientific paper describing the measurement of the effective collecting area of horn-reflector antennas. Such horn or “Hogg” antennas were developed by D.C Hogg, a colleague of Wilson and Penzias at Bell Labs. A Hogg horn combines several characteristics useful for radio astronomy. It is extremely broad-band, has calculable aperture efficiency, and the walls of the horn shield it from radiation coming from angles outside the main beam axis. The back and side lobes are so minimal that scarcely any thermal energy is received from the ground. Consequently it is an ideal radio telescope for accurate measurements of low levels of weak background radiation.

Provenance: personal copy, R. Wilson.

8.) S. Claydon.

Advances in hindsight.

2015. Carbon print on tracing paper. 84 x 119 cm. Edition of 25.

9.) F. Hoyle.

The Nature Of The Universe - A Series Of Broadcast Lectures.

Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1950.

Fred Hoyle, whose Steady State theory was the main rival to the Big Bang theory, coined the expression “Big Bang” as a derogatory term in a series of BBC lectures which were published in this book. The discovery of the CMB definitively disproved the Steady State theory.

10.) P. J. E. Peebles.

Physical Cosmology.

Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1971.

The first cosmology textbook, and a classic marking cosmology’s shift towards becoming a quantifiable scientific discipline.

Provenance: From physicist and Nobel prize winner Aage Bohr's private collection.