A Year of Resolving Backgrounds . ... Credit Copyright: The MAXIMA Collaboration , NSF Explanation: No matter which direction you look, no matter what type of light you see, the sky glows - but why? The sources of many of these background radiations have remained long-standing puzzles, but this millennial year brought some partial resolutions. ... In microwave light , the BOOMERANG and MAXIMA-1 missions resolved with new clarity the seemingly uniform microwave background . ...