New 'baby pictures' of the cosmos show the universe in its infancy

If our 13.8 billion-year-old cosmos could be considered middle-aged, researchers note these new images captured around its 380,000th birthday represent a snapshot of the universe as a newborn.

Mar 20, 2025 - 11:09
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New 'baby pictures' of the cosmos show the universe in its infancy
A new half-sky image from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope combines three wavelengths of light to show the Milky Way galaxy in purple and the cosmic microwave background in gray. On the right, the image is zoomed in to show the Orion Nebula.

If our 13.8 billion-year-old cosmos could be considered middle-aged, researchers note these new images captured around its 380,000th birthday represent a snapshot of the universe as a newborn.

(Image credit: ACT Collaboration; ESA / Planck Collaboration)