A pair of radio astronomers working at Bell Laboratories, Arno Penzias (1933-) and Robert Wilson (1936-) are credited with discovering the cosmic microwave background radiation. Using an antenna originally designed to detect signals from the Echo satellite, the two chanced upon an annoying radio hiss that seemed to be coming from everywhere. After accounting for all possible sources of error, including pigeon droppings inside the antenna, they concluded they were seeing signals coming from all directions of space. After discussing their findings with Princeton physicist Robert Dicke, they realized they were seeing the faint echo of the Big Bang predicted by George Gamow and his colleagues in the 1940s, now glowing softly at a temperature of just 3 degrees above absolute zero. For the discovery, Penzias and Wilson shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for physics.