One of the most powerful discoveries given to us by science has been learning the astounding and glorious history of how we got here.  A key part of that discovery was the finding of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB, see picture above), literally the glow of the Big Bang or Great Radiance itself!  The actual structure which gave us our earliest baby picture of ourselves is now under threat from developers, but you can help save this sacred site for both future generations and our own kids!

The Horn Antenna

An excellent description of the power of this discovery comes from Dr. Kanwal, who is leading efforts to save this structure – the Holmdel Horn Antenna:

What many people don’t realize is that what we discovered on Crawford Hill is comparable to the kind of revelations that led to the faith traditions we so cherish and honor today. The 14 billion year old photons that were captured by the antenna in 1964 were racing over Crawford Hill straight from the fire that gave birth to our universe. It was on that hill, a couple of miles down the road, that we humans first became aware that we are bathed every moment by the light that emanated from our source.

When I take my students and colleagues to visit the site, I tell them I am taking them on a pilgrimage to a sacred place. When I relate the story of how every atom in their body was first fused in the big bang fireball, then cooked in the cores of stars in our galaxy, then baked in the molten center of Earth, before it congealed into our flesh and blood, they are no doubt filled with awe and wonder.

I agree with Dr. Kanwal that this sacred discovery is as powerful as those told of by faith traditions, and would add that this discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation has the added impact of being real, instead of a fabricated story which didn’t actually happen (such as Moses receiving the 10 commandment tablets, Mohammad’s night journey, or so many others.  That it’s even under threat of being turned into houses shows how far our society is from honoring our real and powerful origins.  First, you can help right now by signing the petition to save the Holmdel Horn Antenna, here.

Help us push the number over 8,000!

Other ways to help will be posted here if they arise.

Now that you’ve had a second to sign the petition, we can look at this incredible discovery!
A great overview is here in this youtube video:

And this description from an article in Space:

American cosmologist Ralph Apher first predicted the CMB in 1948, when he was doing work with Robert Herman and George Gamow, according to NASA. The team was doing research related to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, or the production of elements in the universe besides the lightest isotope (type) of hydrogen. This type of hydrogen was created very early in the universe’s history.

But the CMB was first found by accident. In 1965, two researchers with Bell Telephone Laboratories (Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson) were creating a radio receiver and were puzzled by the noise it was picking up. They soon realized the noise came uniformly from all over the sky. At the same time, a team at Princeton University (led by Robert Dicke) was trying to find the CMB. Dicke’s team got wind of the Bell experiment and realized the CMB had been found.

Both teams quickly published papers in the Astrophysical Journal in 1965, with Penzias and Wilson talking about what they saw, and Dicke’s team explaining what it means in the context of the universe. (Later, Penzias and Wilson both received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics).

(Full article here).

This is such a foundational part of our history that there are also plenty of short courses on it, some free.  Here are several free short courses & articles, as well as very good options from the teaching company, here (only ever buy when on sale from the teaching company – too expensive otherwise).

The current situation to save the Holmdel Horn Antenna can be found in this Deep Time Network article.

A Scientific Age?

As alluded to before, if our Overculture valued the real Universe which we are one part of instead of fabricated stories, status symbols, and conspicuous consumption, then this whole post wouldn’t even be a topic to discuss.  The Holmdel Horn Antenna would have long ago been the protected, sacred site it deserves to be.  But that’s not the world we live in.  It’s up to people like us to build a reality based culture of wonder and joy, one which Dr. Richard Feynman also could foresee when he said:

“Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.”

As pointed out before, here, we have a long way to go, but we are taking the first steps.