The universe, in all its complexity, is a truly marvelous thing; And for all our observations, she is still as mysterious as when men first gazed up upon her. The modern theories of how the universe began[and whether its existence will one day end]begin with the observation that the night sky LOOKS dark. And by that statement it implies that the universe cannot be infinitely old as was once the common belief.

If it were, then there would be no place that starlight would NOT be, and there would be a uniform GLOW in the nighttime sky. This observation is referred to as Olbers’s Paradox[so named for the nineteenth century astronomer Wilhelm Olbers]. However, some forms of light have done just that, the cosmic microwave background radiation for one.

Now, researchers have found what appears to be a second younger background; This cosmic infrared background is measured to be some 2.3 times as bright as the visible light of the universe.

However, knowing its intensity, and knowing its source are not one in the same. And the questions of how this effects the formation of stars and galaxies has yet to be answered. One thing is closer to being accepted, and that is the continued expansion of the universe.

The age of the universe question has been answered at 15 billion years, yet there is still a long way to go.