What does the universe look like?
It looks, it turns out, a little something like the image above — a map that details what NASA is calling “the oldest light in our universe.” That light, the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, was imprinted on the sky when the universe was young (it was, essentially, the glowing aftermath of the Big Bang). And it has now been detected with the greatest precision ever achieved by a collaboration among Earth’s science agencies.
See also Preserving Astronomy’s Photographic Legacy and World Views, 2010 and 150
The Story of Information 