cosmic radio noise

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...e_balloon.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...rst-stars.html

quote[NASA]: Listening to the early universe just got harder. A team
led by Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md., today announced the discovery of cosmic radio noise that booms six
times louder than expected.

quote 2[NASA]: A mysterious screen of extra-loud radio noise permeates
the cosmos, preventing astronomers from observing heat from the first
stars. The balloon-borne ARCADE instrument discovered this cosmic static
(white band, top) on its July 2006 flight. The noise is six times louder
than expected. Astronomers have no idea why.


I appreciate all the name calling and hatred in this newsgroup but hey,
why am I relying on gizmodo to keep me abreast of such things? I
thought, likely naively, that is what this place is for.


/diatribe.


So what's the deal here, from someone that is good at explaining such
things to laymen like me? What are some things we, collectively, might
think we're actually hearing? Is this similar to the time when the
scientists thought they had something wrong with their equipment and
were actually listening to the beginnings of the universe... as in, are
we possibly "hearing" something other than what we expect to hear?

Other questions: would this make more sense if we could send the
instrumentation into space? How could we continually monitor such
noises, to see if the boom we hear now will continue in pitch(?) and
duration? Is there anything the layperson can do to lend a hand with
any of this research?


John