Cosmic Radio Show

Hey Ho, did you know?
That there's a universe in the radio
I'm gonna tell you what you want to know
About the universe in the radio

Oh well a radio photon has a low frequency

Corresponding to a deep voice like me
Foot long wavelength, how can that be?
It comes from processes having low energy

A radio photon has a low frequency
'Cause it has a pretty low energy

It was 1931 when Dr. Karl Jansky
He's the father of radio astronomy
He studied radio noise to find out what it could be
And saw that it was coming from our own Galaxy

He wondered what all the static could be
It was the center of the Milky Way Galaxy

I'm gonna tell you what you want to know
I'm gonna tell you what you want to know
Those long waves penetrate Earth's atmosphere
Even if it's cloudy it's radio clear
Observatory dishes placed far and near
Let astronomers see how the waves interfere

They penetrate through the atmosphere
Down to radio dishes placed far and near

There's a lot of cool gas in the Milky Way
Neutral hydrogen atoms leading the way
When the proton and electron spins decay
It sends a really long radio wave our way

And we study these photons day after day
To map the regions of our Galaxy real far away

The universe began with a Big Bang explosion
Particles and energy in furious motion
Then everything expanded and the place cooled down
To three degrees K that Penzias and Wilson found

Still some of those photons hanging around
And that's the microwave background that COBE found

That's our Cosmic Radio Show
Of things about the universe we'd never know
If someone hadn't built a dish and sat below
To see the universe unfold in the radio

Hey Ho, did you know?
That there's a universe in the radio
I'm gonna tell you what you want to know
About the universe in the radio

Imagine the wonderful things that we know
By observing the sky in the radio!