COBE's swan song: a final sky map.Two years after the Cosmic Background Explorer Cosmic Background Explorer: see infrared astronomy. Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) U.S. satellite that from 1989 to 1993 mapped the cosmic background radiation field. In 1964, microwave radiation was discovered that permeated the cosmos uniformly. (COBE COBE: see infrared astronomy. ) Satellite completed its 4-year survey of the microwave background, the faint radiation left over from the Big Bang, researchers have finally finished analyzing all the data. In 1992, COBE researchers discovered tiny fluctuations in the temperature of the otherwise remarkably uniform distribution of the microwave background (SN: 5/2/92, p. 292). Astronomers believe that these fluctuations correspond to the slightly higher and lower densities of some regions in the primordial universe. These variations ultimately gave rise to today's lumpy collection of stars and galaxies. But the 1992 map could not pinpoint the fluctuations because the data contained about as much noise as actual signal. A newly released map contains twice as much signal as noise and gives the true location of temperature variations in the microwave background, says Charles L. Bennett Dr. Charles L. Bennett (born November 1956) is an American observational astrophysicist and a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University.[1] He is the Principal Investigator of NASA's highly successful Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md. NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. is now considering a follow-up mission that would measure the fluctuations over smaller patches of sky, in an effort to locate the variations more precisely. This feat would further test the validity of the myriad theories about the evolution of the cosmos. |
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