There will be a30-minutemaptest at the endofthe secondweek of thecourse. (Those students joining the course latecanmake up the map test outside of class with nopenalty.)
But it is possible to detect minute deviations in this signal, and these fluctuations - seen as mottling in the map - are understood to reflect the differences in the density of matter when the light parted company and set out on its journey all those years ago.