Cosmic Times Home | Teacher Resources | Guide to Articles |

1993 Cosmic Times

This poster is the fifth edition of Cosmic Times, with the publication date chosen to coincide with the discovery of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). These "anisotropies" are tiny variations in the remnant radiation from very early in the Universe, and are seeds of the structure in the Universe we see today. This discovery bolstered Big Bang theory by showing that the Universe we live in could have formed during the time since the Big Bang. This edition of Cosmic Times also presents the the latest discovery in the growing mystery of dark matter. In addition, the Nobel Prize is awarded to a pair of scientists who produced the first concrete proof of gravitational waves – waves in spacetime predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

• Download 1993 poster, newsletters, and glossary
• Teacher's Guide to the 1993 articles
• 1993 Lessons

Order your set of Cosmic Times posters through the Imagine the Universe! Request Form

1993 Article Overview

Age of Universe: 12-20 Billion Years
Size of Universe: 30 Billion Light Years

Article	Thread	Summary
Baby Universe's 1st Picture	Expanding Universe	Observations by NASA's COBE satellite reveal imperfections (anisotropies) in the remnant radiation from shortly after the Big Bang. These imperfections form the seed of structure that we see in the Universe around us today.
Sidebar: Pancake or Oatmeal Universe – What's for Breakfast?	Expanding Universe	The observed imperfections in the cosmic microwave background, while they form the seeds for structures that we see in the Universe today were actually miniscule in size, representing changes from the surroundings of just one part in 100,000.
Inflation in the Universe	Expanding Universe	The uniformity of the cosmic microwave background also posed problems for cosmologists because the background was too smooth. Theorists propose inflation as a possible solution to this "smoothness" problem.
Fool-Proofing Galactic 'Candles'	Supernovae	One class of supernovae appears to be a standard candle that astronomers can use to determine the distances to remote galaxies. This article introduces that concept through a recent revision to the distance scale.
Dark Matter Hunt Heats Up	--	X-ray observations of a cluster of galaxies points to the presence of dark matter.
Pulsar Gravitational Waves Win Nobel Prize	--	A further confirmation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is honored with a Nobel prize for a pair of scientists who discover proof of the existence of gravitational waves.

1993 Lesson Overview

Activity	Summary	Grade		Discipline
		MS	HS
Raisin Bread Universe	Students examine the idea of inflation in the Universe using raisin bread as a model for Universal expansion.	x	x	Physics, Astronomy
What's the Problem with Isotropy	Students explore the cosmic microwave background to understand why a completely smooth (isotropic) background poses problems for the Universe we see today.		x	Physics, Astronomy
Gravitational Waves	Students explore the idea of gravitational waves and how they were discovered by Nobel prize winners Hulse and Taylor.		x	Physics, Astronomy
Melting Ice	Students explore a discrepent event when they design an experiment to measure the rate that ice melts when in pure water versus salt water.	x	x	Physics, Astronomy
Dark Matter NASA Conference	Students explore the evidence for dark matter using the measurements made by the ROSAT X-ray satellite for a small group of galaxies.		x	Physics, Astronomy