U.S. duo win physics Nobel for backing up Big Bang

Noodles

Seeing as G has been posting a lot of great astronomical pictures and data I figured this would be interesting reading.

By Patrick Lannin and Sarah Edmonds

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Americans John Mather and George Smoot won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for work on cosmic radiation which helped pinpoint the age of the universe and supported the Big Bang theory of its birth.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.37 million) prize, said the two men were instrumental to the success of the cosmic background explorer (COBE) satellite program launched by NASA in 1989.

Their work took Big Bang theory, which contends the universe began 15 billion years ago as a tiny dot that exploded into today's huge system of stars and planets, out of the realm of mathematical equations and into the world of precise science.

When their research was published in 1992, famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking called it the "greatest discovery of the century, if not of all time".

"The COBE results provided increased support for the Big Bang scenario for the origin of the universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of microwave background radiation measured by COBE," the Academy said.

The radiation they looked at, so-called blackbody radiation, allowed the laureates to show the universe had cooled from its initial fiery state of 3,000 degrees centigrade (5,000 F) to a chill 2.7 degrees above absolute zero, which is minus 273 degrees centigrade.

This supported the theory that the universe was expanding.

Their measurements also showed temperature variations in background radiation in space, in the range of a hundred-thousandth of a degree, that offered clues as to how galaxies, stars and planets were formed by as matter coalesced.
Mather, 60, coordinated the COBE program and was responsible for one of its key experiments while astrophysicist Smoot, 61, of the University of California, Berkeley, was in charge of measuring small temperature variations in the radiation, the Academy said.

Mather, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told a news conference over a telephone link he was "thrilled and amazed".

"I can't say I am completely surprised. People have been saying we should be awarded (it)," he added.

Smoot told Reuters the Nobel committee called him at 2:45 a.m. Pacific Time after first dialing the wrong number.

VARIATIONS IN SPACE

"It gives us a common viewpoint on how the world came into being and what our place in it might be," he said of his work.

"It is extremely important for human beings to know their origins and their place in the world," he added.

Smoot also found "ripples" in space, or small variations in the microwave background in different directions that provided new clues about galaxy and star formation and why matter had been concentrated in a specific place rather than spreading out.

"Tiny variations in temperature could show where matter had started aggregating. Once this process had started, gravitation would take care of the rest: matter attracts matter which leads to starts and galaxies forming," the Academy said.

Mather said he was already at work on the next steps in the search for the universe's origins as Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared telescope that will be the largest in space, able to push past the limits the Hubble Space Telescope can now observe.