Launched from Kennedy Space Center, the satellite would orbit Earth about five times further away than the moon, for at least two years. The resulting data should help clarify several key questions, including how galaxies formed. Temperatures vary The background radiation varies very slightly in temperature depending on where in the sky it comes from. The hotter radiation, physicists think, comes from denser areas of the early universe. These had more gravity, which sucked in matter, causing it to accelerate and heat up.
Scientists believe the material eventually condensed into galaxies.
The hotter radiation reflects the size and density of the regions that gave birth to galaxies. The galaxies only formed much later. Nevertheless, the patterns of the radiation would help elucidate how the structures formed. Open means it would last forever, expanding, as it has done since the Big Bang. Closed means it would eventually re-collapse under its own weight, billions of years from now.