In the 2000s, cosmic imagery went back to the beginning.

The existence of microwave radiation leftover from the Big Bang had been theorized prior to 1950, and Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson accidentally discovered it in 1965, a discovery that won them a Nobel Prize. In March 2008, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe team released this image, its five-year results from studying the radiation. Red indicates that the area is slightly hotter than the normal temperature of space, while dark blue is slightly cooler.

This oval itself may seem difficult to interpret, but its importance is clear: The cosmic microwave background supports the Big Bang as the model for our universe's creation.