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Discovery Channel

NASA 50th Anniversary Radio Antennae

Radio Antennae

(NASA)

In addition to communications satellites, NASA developed radio receivers on the ground to detect their signals. In 1958 the large, steerable 'Horn Antenna' was built to receive signals relayed from the Earth-orbiting Echo satellite. But in 1965 while using the Horn Antenna, scientists Penzias and Wilson accidentally discovered microwave background radiation, the signature of the Big Bang and the rapid expansion of the early universe that followed.

Initially, Penzies and Wilson mistook the signal for interference from pigeon droppings that littered the inside of the antenna. In fact the duo had made one of the most significant cosmologic discoveries of the twentieth century.
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