WMAP
Overview
The WMAP image of a portion of the sky. Tiny differences in temperature are mapped, with red areas slightly warmer than average and blue areas slightly cooler than average.
Note
See this section’s top page for an introduction on the cosmic microwave background.
Following on the successes of the COBE mission, in 1995 a new mission to explore the CMB to greater resolution was proposed to NASA. Called the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP), it was approved by NASA and launched on June 30, 2001 aboard a Delta II rocket. With the death of David Wilkinson (1935–2002), one of the founding members of MAP and COBE, the mission was named in his honor to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).
WMAP gathered data for a few years, and aimed to observe the cosmic temperature fluctuations in five wavelengths to much greater sensitivity than COBE. In fact, it was forty-five times more sensitive than COBE with far greater resolution. This improved sensitivity is apparent when comparing these two maps.
In the WMAP image, the red areas are hotter and the blue areas are cooler, but as we mentioned in the introduction on the CMB, these differences are to one part in 100,000 Kelvin—extremely sensitive instruments are necessary to see these differences.
As we mentioned, these differences are used to understand the nature of the universe—its geometry, structure, and how it will evolve.
Profiles
Dossier
Census: |
1 all-sky image |
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Asset File: |
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OpenSpace Version: |
2 |
Reference: |
Nine-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations - Final Maps and Results |
Prepared by: |
Brian Abbott (AMNH) |
Source Version: |
4.02 |
License: |