Cosmology with the Cosmic Microwave Background
Manzoor Ahmad Malik · International Journal of Astronomy · 2013
Cosmic M icro wave Background is credited with bringing out Cosmology fro m Speculation to Precision Science. Many of the key cosmological parameters like its age (13.75 Billion Years), its composition (4.6% Baryons, 22.7% Dark Matter, 72.8% Dark Energy) and curvature (flat) are now known to a high degree of accuracy (sub-percent to percent level). It not only prov ides a more acceptable basis for the Big Bang Model but also gives an observational basis to the formation of structures that we see in the p resent Universe, ru ling out many cos mological models. In this paper, I intend to review as to what we have learnt fro m the cosmic microwave background and what we expect to learn fro m it in future, in light of the recent (and upcoming) experimental/observational and theoretical advances.