[text from source (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html)]:
As with the COBE temperature measurement, the agreement between the predicted shape of the CMBR power spectrum and the actual observations is staggering. The balloon-borne experiments (particularly BOOMERang, MAXIMA, and DASI) were able to provide convincing detections of the first and second acoustic peaks before WMAP, but none of those experiments were able to map a large enough area of the sky to match with the COBE DMR data. WMAP bridged that gap and provided much tighter measurement of the positions of the first and second peaks. This was a major confirmation of not only the Lambda CDM version of BBT, but also the basic picture of how the cosmos transitioned from an early radiation-dominated, plasma-filled universe to the matter-dominated universe where most of the large scale structure we see today began to form.
Another stunning example of actual empirical data confirming the theoretical predictions of the cosmological models currently in use by scientists.
Some people seem to be bent on celebrating their ignorance; I prefer to celebrate the light that science has been able to shed on the workings of the Universe. One point of view is negative, and one positive. As our knowledge increases, the negative view will have less and less and less to celebrate, while the positive view, which I hold, will have more an more and more to celebrate.
If our knowledge of the Universe is so paltry, how is that the angular power spectrum predictions Lamda-CDM model fit the actual measured data so well? Again, I'm not holding my breath for answers from the "it's a mystery" crowd. I DO predict another round of whining and hysterical obfuscation from the usual suspects.
MAP Data Released!
11 Feb 2003 - The results from the first year of observing by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe were announced today at a Space Science Update in the auditorium of NASA HQ. Important results include:
- The satellite has been renamed in honor of the late David T. Wilkinson of Princeton University, a key member of the project from its conception.
- The polarization of the microwave background anisotropy coming from scattering by electrons 200 million years after the Big Bang has been detected. This is evidence for an early generation of stars existing 4 to 5 times earlier than any object yet observed.
- The WMAP data agree with previous work showing the Universe is flat and in an accelerating expansion.
- The WMAP data give the most precise values for the density of ordinary [baryonic] matter made of protons and neutrons: 0.4 yoctograms per cubic meter, and for the total of dark and baryonic matter: 2.5 yoctograms per cubic meter. These correspond to omega_b = 0.0224 +/- 0.0009 and omega_m = 0.135 +/- 0.009.
- The WMAP data give the most precise value for the age of the Universe: 13.7 +/- 0.2 Gyr. The Hubble constant is Ho = 71 +/- 4 km/sec/Mpc, and the vacuum energy density corresponds to lambda = 0.73 +/- 0.04.
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