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Image Gallery > Featured Image on February 24, 2003

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The one constant in the Universe: StarDate magazine
Creation's Afterglow 
Creation's Afterglow 
Tiny variations in the "afterglow" of the Big Bang are represented as different colors in this recently released image from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The variations show differences in the temperature and density of matter less than 400,000 years after the Big Bang (red areas are hotter, blue areas cooler). The first stars and galaxies formed in regions where matter was slightly denser. This is by far the sharpest image of the afterglow (known as the microwave background radiation) yet produced. [NASA/WMAP Science Team]

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