Arno Allan Penzias (born April 26, 1933) is an American physicist and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics. April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ...

He was born in Munich, Germany. Aged six he fled to Britain as part of the Kindertransport. Six months later his parents also left Germany, and the family moved to garment district of New York City in 1940. In 1946, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He received a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1954. From Columbia University, he received his master's degree in 1958 and his Ph.D. in 1962. Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... Kindertransport is the name given to a rescue operation initiated by the British Jews for Jewish children in Nazi-occupied countries, following the Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Naturalization is the process whereby a person becomes a national of a nation, or a citizen of a country, other than the one of his birth. ... A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts three or four years. ... The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as the City College of New York or simply City College) is a senior college of the City University of New York, in New York City. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He went on to work at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey where, with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave antennas intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive antenna, the pair encountered radio noise which they could not explain. It was more energetic than the radiation given off by the Milky Way should produce, so the pair assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise eminated from New York City. An examination of the microwave horn antenna showed it was full of pigeon droppings (which Penzias described as "white dielectric material"). After the pair removed the guano buildup, and the pigeons shot (each physicist says the other ordered the deed) the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, the pair published a paper announcing their findings. This was later identified as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the radio remnant of the Big Bang. This allowed astronomers to confirm the Big Bang, and to correct many of their previous assumptions about it. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Horn Antenna in Holmdel Holmdel Township is a township located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. ... Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American physicist. ... A yagi antenna Most simply, an antenna is an electronic component designed to send or receive radio waves. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A NASA artists conception of what the Milky Way would look like if seen off-axis. ... The electrons in the molecules shift toward the positively charged left plate. ... In cosmology, the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is a form of electromagnetic radiation discovered in 1964 that radiates throughout the universe in the microwave range. ... According to the Big Bang theory, the universe originated in an extremely dense and hot state (bottom). ...

Penzias and Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize, sharing it with Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Kapitsa's work was unrelated to Penzias and Wilson's). The two had received the Henry Draper Medal the previous year. Semenov (on the right) and Kapitsa (on the left), portrait by Boris Kustodiev, 1921 Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Russian Пётр Леонидович Капица) (July 9, 1894 – April 8, 1984) was a Soviet/Russian physicist who discovered superfluidity with some contribution from John F. Allen and Don Misener in 1937. ... The Henry Draper Medal was established by the widow of Henry Draper, and is awarded by the US National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astrophysics. ...

Penzias appears on the List of Jewish Nobel Prize winners. This article is a sublist of the List of Jews. ...

External links

• Penzias' biography
• Arno Penzias' home page at Bell Labs