2008-03-07

NASA’s WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe)

New results, just released from NASA's WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), detecting microwaves coming from the cooling fireball of the Big Bang.
clipped from wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA Logo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
WMAP Highlights

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is a NASA Explorer mission. It has produced a wealth of precise and accurate cosmological information. WMAP produced the first full-sky map of the microwave sky with a resolution of under a degree, about the angular size of the moon.
clipped from wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov
WMAP Trajectory to L2
WMAP mission was proposed to NASA in 1995, launced in 2001, and is still collecting data.
clipped from wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov
COBE Satellite in Orbit above the Earth
clipped from wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov

Concept Animation; Wavelengths from the Sky

Starting with an overview of the Milky Way, We move down to see the view from our location.

From the Earth, we can view the sky and unwrap it into an oval for easy viewing.

Finally we can view the light at different wavelenghts from the visible down to the microwave.
Top Image from Journey to Big Bang animation: Leaving the Milky Way
Middle Image from Journey to Big Bang animation: Early Quasars
Bottom Image from Journey to Big Bang animation: CMB Plasma
clipped from wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov

Concept Animations

The Universe Evolves the First Stars

Universe Evolution

Evolving the Universe, from the Cosmic Microwave Background to now.
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Leaving the Milky Way Galaxy

Journey to the Big Bang

Take a journey from the tiny WMAP spacecraft back to the beginnings of the universe.
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blog it

via: Bad Astronomy Blog » The Universe is 13.73 +/- .12 billion years old!
related:
Wilkinson Microwave Microwave Anisotropy Probe
WMAP Observatory: Mission Overview
COBE Satellite
Microwave Sky Wavelengths
WMAP Concept Animations