Wavelength = 2.9 / temperature
Wavelength of the radiation at T = 4000 K: 7.22 x 10^7 m
What color would this radiation appear to our eyes? "red"
The CMB radiation has been stretched by the expansion of space since it originated at the time of recombination. By approximately what factor has the radiation been stretched since recombination?
Stretch factor = wavelength then
The *stretch factor is the same as the redshift z from which the radiation arises. The spectrum of the CMB radiation has exactly the shape expected from a black body thermal distributed hot 4000 K gas at the end of the Era of Nuclei, but rather from many individual stars and radiators with a single temperature. Suppose the CMBR did not come from the nearly uniform, evenly distributed galaxies that first formed in the early Universe. How would the spectrum of the CMBR differ from the spectrum we observe?