I know that the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is the leftover radiation from the Big Bang. Have we been able to make a concrete map of the radiation and the objects in the visible universe? (Something like "this point in the CMBR map evolved into this particular region of the visible universe".)
1 Answer
Sadly we can't do that. What we see of the CMB is a different part of the Universe, the galaxy clusters that have evolved from the clumps that we see in the CMB are beyond our capability to see (they are farther away than it would take light to travel since their creation). Theoretically we will eventually see those galaxies if we keep observing for a few billion more years (as well as other parts of the CMB). For now our studies relating structure in the CMB to galaxy formation are entirely based on modelling and statistics.
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1$\begingroup$ great answer. So right now there is no "hard evidence" that the CMB is the signature of large scale structures in the universe? $\endgroup$– Jus12Commented Jul 18, 2011 at 4:31
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1$\begingroup$ @Jus12 there's a lot of good evidence, but in a court of law it would be called circumstantial evidence. We can't see both the CMB structure and the galaxies that structure corresponds to at the same time though. $\endgroup$– WedgeCommented Jul 18, 2011 at 7:55