 Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s2/3/a/solution

Thermal interstellar dust produces a bright galactic foreground concentrated toward the Milky Way plane, with additional cloud structure. Its emission spectrum differs from the approximately

2.73 K

blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, so comparisons across frequencies help separate it. In the sketch below this is the bright equatorial band.

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