Page "Cosmic microwave background radiation" Paragraph 3

Cosmic background radiation is well explained as radiation left over from an early stage in the development of the universe, and its discovery is considered a landmark test of the Big Bang model of the universe.

When the universe was young, before the formation of stars and planets, it was smaller, much hotter, and filled with a uniform glow from its white-hot fog of hydrogen plasma.

As the universe expanded, both the plasma and the radiation filling it grew cooler.

When the universe cooled enough, protons and electrons could form neutral atoms.

These atoms could no longer absorb the thermal radiation, and the universe became transparent instead of being an opaque fog.

Cosmologists refer to the time period when neutral atoms first formed as the recombination epoch, and the event shortly after of photons starting to travel freely through space rather than constantly scattering with electrons and protons in plasma is referred to as photon decoupling.

The photons that existed at the time of photon decoupling have been propagating ever since, though growing fainter and less energetic, since the expansion of space causes their wavelength to increase over time ( and wavelength is inversely proportional to energy according to Planck's relation ).

This is the source for the alternate term relic radiation.

The surface of last scattering refers to the set of points in space at the right distance from us so that we would just now be receiving photons originally emitted from those points at the time of photon decoupling.