[1]
In 1964, radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were using a large horn antenna at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, to detect weak radio signals from the spaces between galaxies. However, their efforts were frustrated by a persistent background hiss that was louder than expected. The noise did not vary by day, night, or season, suggesting it did not originate from the sun or a localized celestial source.
[2]
Determined to isolate the source of the interference, the pair systematically checked their equipment. They pointed the antenna toward New York City to see if urban radio broadcasts were responsible, but the hiss remained constant. They even cleaned the antenna of pigeon droppings that had accumulated inside the horn, yet the mysterious static persisted. Penzias and Wilson were out of conventional explanations.
[3]
Meanwhile, physicists at nearby Princeton University led by Robert Dicke were theorizing that if the Big Bang had occurred, it would have left behind a faint, uniform remnant radiation throughout the universe. When Dicke heard of the Bell Labs scientists' unexplained static, he realized they had found exactly what his team was searching for. Penzias and Wilson had accidentally detected the cosmic microwave background radiation, a discovery that earned them the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics and provided crucial evidence for the Big Bang theory.
Suppose the writer's goal had been to write an essay that describes how a major scientific discovery was made through accidental observations rather than planned experimentation. Would this essay fulfill that goal?
- Yes, because it describes how Penzias and Wilson unintentionally detected cosmic microwave background radiation while attempting to eliminate static from their antenna.Answer
- BYes, because it details how Penzias and Wilson designed a series of experiments specifically to test the Big Bang theory.
- CNo, because the essay focuses primarily on the history of Bell Telephone Laboratories rather than a specific scientific discovery.
- DNo, because the discovery was predicted by Robert Dicke's team at Princeton, meaning the observation was planned rather than accidental.