Cosmic Microwave Background — MCQs January 8, 2026August 20, 2025 by u930973931_answers 50 Score: 0 Attempted: 0/50 Subscribe 1. What is the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)? (A) Radiation left over from the Big Bang (B) Radiation from black holes (C) Light from distant galaxies (D) Radiation from stars 2. In which wavelength range is the CMB observed today? (A) Infrared (B) Visible light (C) Microwave (D) X-ray 3. What is the approximate temperature of the CMB today? (A) 0 K (B) 2.7 K (C) 10 K (D) 100 K 4. Who first accidentally discovered the CMB in 1965? (A) Edwin Hubble (B) George Gamow (C) Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (D) Albert Einstein 5. The CMB provides strong evidence for which theory? (A) Steady State Theory (B) Big Bang Theory (C) String Theory (D) General Relativity 6. The CMB was released when the universe was about how old? (A) 10 seconds (B) 380,000 years (C) 1 million years (D) 1 billion years 7. What event caused the release of the CMB? (A) Nucleosynthesis (B) Recombination (atoms forming from protons and electrons) (C) Galaxy formation (D) Black hole evaporation 8. Before recombination, the universe was: (A) Transparent to radiation (B) Opaque to radiation (C) Filled only with dark matter (D) Already full of galaxies 9. Which satellite provided the most detailed map of the CMB in 2013? (A) COBE (B) WMAP (C) Planck (D) Hubble 10. The slight variations in the CMB are called: (A) Anisotropies (B) Isotropies (C) Polarization (D) Background noise 11. The uniformity of the CMB across the sky supports the idea of: (A) Inflation (B) Multiverse (C) String theory (D) Dark energy 12. COBE, launched in 1989, confirmed the CMB had a: (A) Flat spectrum (B) Perfect blackbody spectrum (C) Infrared spectrum (D) Random distribution 13. What does the polarization of the CMB help scientists study? (A) Black holes (B) Gravitational waves from inflation (C) Dark energy directly (D) Star formation rates 14. Which anisotropies are due to our motion relative to the CMB? (A) Dipole anisotropies (B) Quadrupole anisotropies (C) Higher multipole anisotropies (D) Polarized anisotropies 15. The CMB anisotropies give information about: (A) Size of the universe today (B) Early density fluctuations leading to galaxies (C) Speed of light (D) Age of stars 16. The CMB was first theoretically predicted by: (A) Isaac Newton (B) Albert Einstein (C) George Gamow and colleagues (D) Carl Sagan 17. Which constant is measured more accurately using the CMB? (A) Gravitational constant (B) Hubble constant (C) Planck’s constant (D) Boltzmann constant 18. The CMB temperature fluctuations are typically about: (A) 1 K (B) 0.1 K (C) 0.0001 K (D) 10 K 19. The CMB supports the presence of which two unseen components of the universe? (A) Dark matter and dark energy (B) Stars and galaxies (C) Quasars and pulsars (D) Black holes and neutron stars 20. The power spectrum of the CMB anisotropies provides information about: (A) The size and geometry of the universe (B) The lifetime of stars (C) The number of galaxies (D) The expansion of black holes 21. The CMB is often referred to as the: (A) First light of the universe (B) Last light of the stars (C) Cosmic fog (D) Interstellar glow 22. The nearly uniform CMB supports the idea that the universe is: (A) Homogeneous and isotropic on large scales (B) Random and chaotic everywhere (C) Dominated by quasars (D) Shaped like a cube 23. Which color would the CMB have appeared to early atoms at recombination? (A) Blue-white light (B) Infrared light (C) Microwave radiation (D) X-rays 24. The “cold spots” in the CMB correspond to: (A) Lower density regions (B) Higher density regions (C) Collapsing stars (D) Black holes 25. The CMB is an example of: (A) Non-ionizing background radiation (B) Ionizing cosmic rays (C) Gamma-ray bursts (D) Solar wind 26. What shape of universe does the CMB suggest? (A) Closed universe (B) Flat universe (C) Open universe (D) Toroidal universe 27. The CMB helped determine the universe’s age to be about: (A) 5 billion years (B) 10 billion years (C) 13.8 billion years (D) 20 billion years 28. Which experiment first detected anisotropies in the CMB? (A) COBE (B) WMAP (C) Planck (D) Spitzer 29. The Sachs-Wolfe effect relates CMB fluctuations to: (A) Galactic winds (B) Gravitational potential variations (C) Supernova explosions (D) Cosmic rays 30. The CMB is often described as the: (A) Echo of creation (B) Background of stars (C) End of galaxies (D) Foreground noise 31. The Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect occurs when CMB photons interact with: (A) Cosmic dust (B) Hot gas in galaxy clusters (C) Dark matter (D) Black holes 32. The CMB is essential for testing which cosmological model? (A) Steady State Theory (B) ΛCDM model (Lambda Cold Dark Matter) (C) String Theory (D) Multiverse Theory 33. The CMB was much hotter in the past because: (A) Galaxies emitted more light (B) The universe was smaller and denser (C) Stars were brighter (D) Cosmic rays were stronger 34. Which kind of spectrum does the CMB follow? (A) Line spectrum (B) Blackbody spectrum (C) Absorption spectrum (D) Emission spectrum 35. The discovery of the CMB won the Nobel Prize in Physics in: (A) 1929 (B) 1965 (C) 1978 (D) 2006 36. WMAP was launched in: (A) 1989 (B) 2001 (C) 2013 (D) 1995 37. Planck spacecraft was launched by which agency? (A) NASA (B) ESA (European Space Agency) (C) JAXA (D) ISRO 38. Which type of information about the early universe is encoded in the CMB? (A) Temperature and density fluctuations (B) Ages of galaxies (C) Solar system evolution (D) Stellar explosions 39. The Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect provides evidence for: (A) Dark energy (B) Neutron stars (C) Supernovae (D) Black holes 40. What percentage of the universe is ordinary matter according to CMB data? (A) ~5% (B) ~20% (C) ~50% (D) ~90% 41. What percentage of the universe is dark matter according to CMB data? (A) ~10% (B) ~27% (C) ~50% (D) ~70% 42. What percentage of the universe is dark energy according to CMB data? (A) ~68% (B) ~20% (C) ~5% (D) ~90% 43. The uniformity of the CMB across the sky is called: (A) Horizon problem (B) Homogeneity (C) Singularity (D) Isotropy 44. The CMB supports the need for: (A) Cosmic inflation (B) Supernova explosions (C) Gravitational collapse (D) Nuclear fusion 45. The first space mission to detect CMB was: (A) COBE (B) WMAP (C) Planck (D) Hubble 46. Which process cooled photons into microwaves after the Big Bang? (A) Expansion of the universe (B) Supernovae (C) Black hole radiation (D) Cosmic rays 47. The tiny irregularities in the CMB later grew into: (A) Galaxies and large-scale structures (B) Black holes only (C) Cosmic rays (D) Quasars only 48. What does the angular power spectrum of the CMB show? (A) Distribution of anisotropy scales (B) Locations of galaxies (C) Positions of quasars (D) Black hole masses 49. The study of the CMB helps confirm the universe’s geometry is: (A) Flat (B) Curved positively (C) Curved negatively (D) Cylindrical 50. The CMB is one of the most important tools for studying: (A) Early universe cosmology (B) Planetary science (C) Solar physics (D) Stellar evolution only