two astronomers working out of a research facility in Holmdel, New Jersey, noticed an annoying residue of static in the highly sensitive readings their radio telescopes were making of distant space. They assumed it must be due to the pigeons that insisted on roosting up there and crapping all over the dish. So they climbed onto the apparatus and carefully scoured it. To no avail. It turns out they were listening not to pigeon droppings but to the microwave radiation left over from the origin of time. But these traces of the big bang had no specific origin. No matter what direction they trained
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