Image of the Day: The Universe’s Baby Picture

On Thursday, the latest heat map of the universe was released by the European Space Agency.It depicts what is known to be the oldest light in the universe through the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is a hazy radiation glow found in space.The European Space Agency launched its space telescope, Planck, in May 2009.With its 15 months of  data, astronomers were able to create the heat map which indicates that the red and orange areas are warmer temperatures as the light and dark blues are colder temperatures.The cool temperatures revealed where clustered matter were stationed before gravity formed them into galaxies and stars.The map also signified that the universe held about 32% more matter and about 68% less of dark energy.The data also determined the universe to be 50 million years older than astronomers first believed.Cosmic Background Radiation was first formed about 380,000 years after the universe was formed which now, according to the map, was about 13.82 billion years ago.Although the map also confirms the Big Bang Theory of the universe starting at a small high temperature stature, it also suggests the universe  grew massively at an extremely faster rate than the speed of light.Although the map still does not determine if there is life in other galaxies, it does answer some speculations in astronomers' theories such as the temperature fluctuations within the universe being weaker than predicted.