Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1988. 26: 245-294 Copyright © 1988 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

2.2.3. COSMIC BLACKBODY RADIATION

Previous reviews of this topic include Sunyaev & Zel'dovich (189) and Wilkinson (212a).

Evidently, the cosmic blackbody radiation was generated by primordial material with fluctuations in mass density that later evolved into the (superclusters + voids) large-scale structure that we observe today. Searches are in progress to detect a signature of these fluctuations in the form of irregularities in the sky distribution of the cosmic blackbody radiation. Wilkinson (212a) reports that the 0.1% cosine distribution of the all-sky cosmic blackbody radiation (interpreted to represent a 600 ± 50 km s^-1 motion of the Local Group relative to the frame defined by this radiation) shows no ripples on smaller angular scales at 10% of that level. In particular, bumpiness with angular scales of about 10 arcmin has not yet been seen (cf. Section 3.2.2).