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Early Results From the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J. C. Mather ,
M. G. Hauser ,
C. L. Bennett ,
N. W. Boggess ,
E. S. Cheng ,
R. E. Eplee Jr. ,
H. T. Freudenreich ,
R. B. Isaacman ,
T. Kelsall  and
C. M. Lisse
...Show all authors
J. C. Mather
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
M. G. Hauser
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
C. L. Bennett
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
N. W. Boggess
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
E. S. Cheng
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
R. E. Eplee Jr.
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
H. T. Freudenreich
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
R. B. Isaacman
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
T. Kelsall
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
C. M. Lisse
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
S. H. Moseley Jr.
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
R. A. Shafer
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
R. F. Silverberg
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
W. J. Spiesman
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
G. N. Toller
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
J. L. Weiland
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
S. Gulkis
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 169-506, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
M. Janssen
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 169-506, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
P. M. Lubin
Affiliation:
UCSB, Dept. of Physics, Goleta, CA 93106
S. S. Meyer
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
R. Weiss
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
T. L. Murdock
Affiliation:
General Research Corporation, 5 Cherry Hill Drive, Suite 220, Danvers, MA 01923
G. F. Smoot
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley, Laboratory, 50-232, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
D. T. Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Box 708, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
E. L. Wright
Affiliation:
UCLA Dept. of Astronomy, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1562

Abstract

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The Cosmic Background Explorer, launched November 18, 1989, has nearly completed its first full mapping of the sky with all three of its instruments: a Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) covering 0.1 to 10 mm, a set of Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) operating at 3.3, 5.7, and 9.6 mm, and a Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) spanning 1 to 300 µm in ten bands. A preliminary map of the sky derived from DIRBE data is presented. Initial cosmological implications include: a limit on the Comptonization y parameter of 10−3, on the chemical potential μ parameter of 10−2, a strong limit on the existence of a hot smooth intergalactic medium, and a confirmation that the dipole anisotropy has the spectrum expected from a Doppler shift of a blackbody. There are no significant anisotropies in the microwave sky detected, other than from our own galaxy and a cosθ dipole anisotropy whose amplitude and direction agree with previous data. At shorter wavelengths, the sky spectrum and anisotropies are dominated by emission from ‘local’ sources of emission within our Galaxy and Solar System. Preliminary comparison of IRAS and DIRBE sky brightnesses toward the ecliptic poles shows the IRAS values to be significantly higher than found by DIRBE at 100 μm. We suggest the presence of gain and zero-point errors in the IRAS total brightness data. The spacecraft, instrument designs, and data reduction methods are described.

Type
I. Current Missions
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 123: Observatories in Earth Orbit and Beyond , 1990 , pp. 9 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1990

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