How do scientists create a map of the sky using cosmic background radiation?

[Nibles]

I was reading some article about some scientists who were able to 'read' some sort of cosmic background radiation and determine the size, shape, and age of the universe or whatever. How do they take these radiation readings and create an 'image' or understanding of the universe?

 

[ScionPunk352]

Well, from my knowledge, they use the red shift method. Or you can also remember that the farthest things we can see out there happen to be X many light years away, and say...a quasar that is 15 billion light years away...we are looking 15 billion years into the past...that is one of our standard...most basic ways of figuring the age out. As to the radiation readings...it could be the wavelengths that help them understand the distance between stars and such. Each star sends out a certaint amount of radiation waves. If you could give me a link to the article, it would be quite nice to read it and maybe even do a little more research on radiation as a tool for mapping the universe.
-Bob Smith

 

[Nibles]

I read it in a magazine.

 

[chroot]

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/

- Warren