1. Whisper of Creation with Psalm 19
By Dr. Harold Williams
of Montgomery College Planetarium
Title slide

2. Psalm 19 (CEV)
1The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done.    2 Each day informs the following day; each night announces to the next.  3 They don't speak a word, and there is never the sound of a voice. 4 Yet their message reaches all the earth, and it travels around the world. In the heavens a tent is set up for the sun.   

3. 5 It rises like a bridegroom and gets ready like a hero eager to run a race. 6 It travels all the way across the sky. Nothing hides from its heat.  7 The Law of the LORD is perfect; it gives us new life. His teachings last forever, and they give wisdom to ordinary people. 8 The LORD's instruction is right; it makes our hearts glad. His commands shine brightly, and they give us light. 9 Worshiping the LORD is sacred; he will always be worshiped. All of his decisions are correct and fair.  10 They are worth more than the finest gold and are sweeter than honey from a honeycomb.  11 By your teachings, Lord, I am warned; by obeying them, I am greatly rewarded. 

4. 12 None of us know our faults.  Forgive me when I sin without knowing it.  13 Don't let me do wrong on purpose, Lord, or let sin have control over my life. Then I will be innocent, and not guilty of some terrible fault.   14 Let my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you, LORD, because you are my mighty rock and my protector.

5. Measuring the Beginning
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
John C. Mather & George Smoot Physics Nobel Prize 2006
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)

6. Famous COBE microwave fluctuation Map
"Cosmic microwave background temperature data were extracted from the released FITS files and then combined into two linear combinations. The first is a weighted sum of the 53 and 90 GHz channels which gives the highest signal-to-noise ratio for cosmic temperature variations but includes the Milky Way Galaxy as well. In the second linear combination, a multiple of the 31 GHz map is subtracted from a weighted sum of the 53 plus 90 GHz channels to give a "reduced map" that gives zero response to the observed Galaxy, zero response to free-free emission, but full response to variations in the cosmic temperature. These maps have been smoothed with a 7 degree beam, giving an effective angular resolution of 10 degrees. An all-sky image in Galactic coordinates is plotted using the equal-area Mollweide projection. The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy is horizontal across the middle of each picture. Sagittarius is in the center of the map, Orion is to the right and Cygnus is to the left.The following image just shows the reduced map (i.e., both the dipole and Galactic emission subtracted). The cosmic microwave background fluctuations are extremely faint, only one part in 100,000 compared to the 2.73 degree Kelvin average temperature of the radiation field. The cosmic microwave background radiation is a remnant of the Big Bang and the fluctuations are the imprint of density contrast in the early universe. The density ripples are believed to have given rise to the structures that populate the universe today: clusters of galaxies and vast regions devoid of galaxies."taken from: [1]

7. DMR data with dipole subtracted
Data obtained by COBE at each of the three DMR frequencies , 53, and 90 GHz - following dipole subtraction. (NASA image)

8. WMAP microwave fluctuation map

9. FIRAS COBE spectrum http://en. wikipedia

10. COBE & WMAP conclusions
Universe around 2.73 degrees Kelvin.
13.7 billion ± 200 million years old
TimeSpace curvature of the universe is extremely near to flat not hyperbolic or spherical.
The Hubble constant is 70 (km/s)/Mpc, +2.4/-3.2