Bell Labs scientists have proven Big Bang theory

“How did we get here?”

This existential question about the universe has captured humanity for centuries. Many scientists have attempted to answer them, notably the Reverend Georges Lemaît, Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest. In 1927, he theorized that the universe was created from a single particle which he called “primitive atom”.

This atom was later disintegrated in an explosion, figured Lemaître, creating a space, time and a constant expansion universe, according to the American Museum of Natural History.

Lemaître’s idea probably seems familiar because it is now known as the Big Bang Theory. Direct evidence of the theory were only found almost four decades later, entirely by accident.

Researchers from Bell Labs Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson were experiencing radio-astronomy in 1964 using a Klaxon antenna located on the company of the company in Holmdel, the reflector antenna was the most sensitive to the world at the time. It was built to recover low radio signals from space for Project Echo, the 1960 NASA satellite communication communication program. The project succeeded twice, first in 1961 through the passive communication satellite Echo, and a second time in 1963 via the Tuetar Active communications satellite.

While Penzias and Wilson used the Holmdel antenna to map the radio signals from the Milky Way, he picked up a mysterious noise of buzzing which would not disappear despite their attempts to eliminate it.

The signals, which persisted day and night, proved to be cosmic microwave backdrop which permeates the universe – a rest of the creation of the cosmos – which helped confirm the theory of the Big Bang. The accidental breakthrough has earned Penzias and Wilson the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Project Echo, Teltar and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation was recognized as an IEEE milestone during a ceremony held on May 25 in Holmdel in Wilson Park, where the horn antenna is located.

The evidence of Penzias and Wilson for the theory of Big Bang shaped “our understanding of this universe and our place,” said Thomas Coughlin, 2024, president of the IEEE, in a press release on dedication.

“The cosmic background influence, one of the most transforming discoveries of the second half of the 20th century, has also led to non -land communication innovations that meet some of the largest needs in the world, including help for help in the event of a disaster,” said Coughlin.

Build the most sensitive antenna in the world

After the Soviet Union in 1957 launched Sputnik, the world’s leading artificial artificial satellite put into low -land orbit, the US government has increased its efforts to finance the development of non -terrestrial communication innovations, as detailed in a Wiki engineering and technology entry.

Government and industry have worked together on initiatives in laboratories in the country. One of the first programs was the Echo project, which aimed to carry out a two -way vocal communication between the NASA jet propulsion laboratory in Goldstone, California, and Crawford Hill in Holmdel, 5 kilometers from the Bell Labs complex.

Langley Engineers (right): Norman Crabill, Edwin Kilgore and an unidentified man take a look at the vast ball during the inflation tests of the Echo 1 satellite in Weeksville, NCNasa

To make communication possible, the project wires developed and built the horn of the Klaxon on the Bell Labs site. The antenna was 15.24 meters long, 6.1 meters wide, weighing 16,329 kilograms. It channeled the radio waves in or out of the shape of the horn, and the reflector has bounced the waves in a single focused beam – similar to a huge metal megaphone pointing in a curved mirror. Despite its large size, the machine could be precisely targeted.

Unlike other antennas that are not paid on a single frequency, the Holmdel antenna has worked on a large frequency strip, so that it can pick up several types of radio signals. It could also manage the radio waves moving in linear or circular paths.

The design explained the potential need to eliminate unwanted environment from the environment.

The receiver was placed at the apex of the horn, eliminating the need for a connection line, which could lead to an external noise and a loss of signal.

The antenna allowed Project Echo to finish the first high -quality long distance vocal circuit in 1961 through its passive communication satellite of its namesake, Echo. A similar experience was successfully carried out two years later in the Teltar satellite, according to the proposal for the milestone of the IEEE.

In 1964 Penzias and Wilson began to use the Holmdel antenna to carry out their own radio-astronomy experiences.

What is this buzzing sound?

The duo was trying to map the weak radio signals of the Milky Way. They took pain to eliminate external noise from the ground, the environment and the antenna itself so that their readings are not affected. They even eliminated the interference of the receiver on the antenna by cooling it with liquid helium at -269 ° C -only at 4 degrees above absolute zero, the theoretical temperature to which the whole movement stops.

However, they continued to hear a persistent buzz. It was weak, stable and 100 times more intense than the researchers expected an interference noise – and it came from all the directions of the space.

Penzias and Wilson redoubled their efforts to eliminate interference, carefully restoring their equipment.

The proof of Penzias and Wilson for Big Bang theory has shaped “our understanding of this universe and our place.” —Thomas coughlin, 2024 President of the IEEE

“They went so far as to take rags and detergents to carefully wash the antenna of the excrement of a pair of pigeons that ended up,” said Leonardo Colletti Spectrum ieee In an article of 2023 on the discovery. Colletti is a professor of physics at the free university of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.

But even after all the work of the duo, the mysterious buzz continued.

After Penzias and Wilson had explained everything, including the pigeon poop, they concluded that the radiation they detect could not come from the earth, the sun or anything else in the galaxy.

Later, they learned that the researchers and astrophysicists Robert H. Dicke, P. James Peebles and David Todd Wilkinson at Princeton University predicted the existence of a cosmic microwave, which according to them, would have resulted from the Big Bang “, according to an entry on the Nokia Bell Labs website.

“It turned out that the article said,” the radiation detected by Penzias and Wilson was a perfect match for what Princeton’s researchers had predicted. “”

Save the horn antenna

In 1989, the Holmdel antenna was appointed national historical monument. But in 2021, Nokia, who had acquired Bell Labs, sold the 43 acres area to the technological entrepreneur Rakesh Antala.

The following year, the Holmdel Planning Board voted to undertake a study to consider reclassifying the site as an area that needs a redevelopment.

[From left] The deputy mayor of Holmdel, Kim Lamoutain, the former researcher of Bell Labs, Giovanni Vannucci, and the president of the IEEE in 2024, Tom Coghlin, celebrating the dedication of the stage before the horn antenna in Holmdel, njBala Prasanna

Who has ended the point of view of being demolished, Spectrum ieee reported.

The local community has gathered, launching an advertising campaign and an online petition to save the antenna. The canton finally obtained the property of the Klaxon antenna site following an extended legal process. Last year, he devoted the site as Dr. Robert Wilson Park, honoring him as the place where “we acquired a critical understanding of the birth of our universe”.

A plaque recognizing the IEEE stage designation is displayed in the Hall of the AT&T Labs Science and Technology Center in Middletown, NJ, about 7 kilometers from Crawford Hill. The plate can be read as follows:

In 1959-1960, NASA and AT&T developed an Earth satellite station in Holmdel, NJ, including a new Horn-Reflector of tracking, a MASER preamplifier and an FM demodulator. The Earth station demonstrated the first high-quality long distance vocal circuit via the Echo passive communication satellite in 1960-1961 and via the Tuetar Communications Satellite in 1962-1963. The experiences carried out in 1964-1965 provided the first indication of the cosmic background influence associated with the Big Bang.

The section of the IEEE New Jersey coast and the IEEE photonics company sponsored the appointment.

Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the stage program recognizes exceptional technical developments in the world.