The colors in the temperature map image that scientists released Thursday were arbitrarily chosen to show these intensity variations, Lawrence said.

CNN: Better 'baby picture' of universe emerges

Scientists used data from Planck to create an artificially colored map of temperature variations across the sky in the early universe, in more detail than ever before.

CNN: Better 'baby picture' of universe emerges

If you pick up all the temperature data points in the sky map and put them in histogram, you should get a nice bell curve.

BBC: The first fractions of a second after the Big Bang

Another anomaly of these results is that temperature fluctuations are not uniform across the sky map.

CNN: Better 'baby picture' of universe emerges

The satellite images picked out the right type of afforested land, and topography, which, when combined with other data on soil types, rainfall, and temperature, produced a clear "Loa Loa map" of several African countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

BBC: Danger worms tracked from space