How Is the Distance to the CMB Measured and How Does It Relate to Its Structure?

[AutoToAlek]

Hello, I'm new here and have joined to ask the following two questions:

1 - The distance to the CMB has been measured at approximately 14 billion light years. How was this achieved, what is the error and is it the same in all directions?

2 - WMAP data clearly shows that the CMB has a plane or equator of sorts. What is the angle of offset between that plane and our galactic plane?

I'd be very interested to know these answers. Thanks in advance!

 

[nicksauce]

1 - The distance to the CMB has been measured at approximately 14 billion light years. How was this achieved, what is the error and is it the same in all directions?

Do you have a reference for that? Because it doesn't sound true.

2 - WMAP data clearly shows that the CMB has a plane or equator of sorts. What is the angle of offset between that plane and our galactic plane?

That is exactly the galactic plane.

 

[Chalnoth]

Hello, I'm new here and have joined to ask the following two questions:

1 - The distance to the CMB has been measured at approximately 14 billion light years. How was this achieved, what is the error and is it the same in all directions?

Well, the time since the CMB was emitted has been measured to be about 13.7 billion years. Distance is another matter, and that depends upon what you mean by "distance" (unfortunately, it isn't terribly simple in curved space-time).

The basic way this was measured is by using the anisotropies in the CMB to determine how much matter, dark matter, dark energy, etc. there was in the universe, then extrapolating from that the rate of expansion between now and then, and from the rate of expansion we can obtain the amount of time that has passed since the CMB was emitted.

2 - WMAP data clearly shows that the CMB has a plane or equator of sorts. What is the angle of offset between that plane and our galactic plane?

No, that's just our galaxy that you're seeing. That's not part of the CMB itself.