Cosmic Microwave Background
Penzias detects unexplained microwave antenna noise that will be identified as cosmic background radiation
Astronomer profile · World History Database
Arno Penzias
Arno Penzias was a radio astronomer who, with Robert Wilson, detected a persistent microwave signal in 1965 that was identified as the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Why Arno Penzias matters in astronomy
The discovery supplied a major observational foundation for Big Bang cosmology by revealing relic radiation from the early universe. It became one of the defining discoveries of twentieth-century cosmology.
3matching database records
Penzias, Arno AllanName2, Name1 format
Arno Penzias timeline in the database
Cosmic Microwave Background
Penzias publishes the measurement of excess antenna temperature from the cosmic microwave background
Nobel Prize
Penzias receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for the microwave background discovery
Related astronomy topics
Sources and editorial provenance
Compiled and edited by World History Database
Historical chronology compiled from the World History Database and checked against major scientific and historical reference sources.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
- Royal Museums Greenwich — History of astronomy
- Royal Museums Greenwich — History of the telescope
- NASA Science — Hubble timeline
- NASA Science — Exoplanet discovery history
- LIGO — GW150914 first gravitational-wave detection
- Event Horizon Telescope — first black-hole image
- NASA Webb — mission science and discoveries