The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the radiant heat remaining from the Big Bang. Headed by Professor Charles L. Bennett of Johns Hopkins University, the mission was developed in a joint partnership between the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University. The WMAP spacecraft was launched on 30 June 2001 from Florida. The WMAP mission succeeded the COBE space mission and was the second medium-class (MIDEX) spacecraft in the NASA Explorer program. In 2003, MAP was renamed WMAP in honor of cosmologist David Todd Wilkinson (1935–2002), who had been a member of the mission's science team. After nine years of operations, WMAP was switched off in 2010, following the launch of the more advanced Planck spacecraft by European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009.
WMAP's measurements played a key role in establishing the current Standard Model of Cosmology: the Lambda-CDM model. The WMAP data are very well fit by a universe that is dominated by dark energy in the form of a cosmological constant. Other cosmological data are also consistent, and together tightly constrain the Model. In the Lambda-CDM model of the universe, the age of the universe is 13.772 billion years. The WMAP mission's determination of the age of the universe is to better than 1% precision. The current expansion rate of the universe is (see Hubble constant) 69.32km·s−1·Mpc−1. The content of the universe currently consists of 4.628% ordinary baryonic matter; 24.02% cold dark matter (CDM) that neither emits nor absorbs light; and 71.35% of dark energy in the form of a cosmological constant that accelerates the expansion of the universe. Less than 1% of the current content of the universe is in neutrinos, but WMAP's measurements have found, for the first time in 2008, that the data prefer the existence of a cosmic neutrino background with an effective number of neutrino species of 3.
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In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the universe does not expand at a constant rate; rather, the universe's expansion is accelerating. Understanding the universe's evolution requires knowledge of its starting conditions and composition. Before these observations, scientists thought that all forms of matter and energy in the universe would only cause the expansion to slow down over time.
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the radiant heat remaining from the Big Bang. Headed by Professor Charles L. Bennett of Johns Hopkins University, the mission was developed in a joint partnership between the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University.
The expansion of the universe is the increase in distance between gravitationally unbound parts of the observable universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion; the universe does not expand "into" anything and does not require space to exist "outside" it. To any observer in the universe, it appears that all but the nearest galaxies (which are bound by gravity) recede at speeds that are proportional to their distance from the observer, on average.
Be captivated by the exotic objects that populate the Radio Sky and gain a solid understanding of their physics and the fundamental techniques we use to observe them.
Cosmology is the study of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. This course describes the principal themes of cosmology, as seen
from the point of view of observations.
This course is the basic introduction to modern cosmology. It introduces students to the main concepts and formalism of cosmology, the observational status of Hot Big Bang theory
and discusses major
This first part of the course covers non-equilibrium statistical processes and the treatment of fluctuation dissipation relations by Einstein, Boltzmann and Kubo. Moreover, the fundamentals of Markov
Explores the 3D distribution of galaxies, galaxy clustering, and the cosmic microwave background, shedding light on the observable universe's contents and properties.
Explores the history of the Universe, from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to the Cosmic Microwave Background, including mass measurements, CMB's role, and statistical assessments.
Explores the Cosmic Microwave Background, its anisotropies, and cosmological implications through observations and statistical assessments.