Posted on 10/03/2006 11:35:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Two American astronomers who uncovered evidence on the origin of the universe and how it grew into galaxies were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday.
The astronomers, John C. Mather of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and George F. Smoot of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, will split the prize of 10 million Swedish kroners, about $1.37 million.
Dr. Mather and Dr. Smoot led a team of more than 1,000 scientists, engineers and technicians behind the Cosmic Background Explorer, or COBE, satellite launched in 1989. Its mission was to study a haze of microwave radiation thought to be a remnant of the Big Bang that started the universe.
In its citation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences wrote, “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 cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE.”
The satellite measured the temperature and distribution of the microwaves, including the detection of faint irregularities, the seeds from which things like galaxies could have grown. A result was a resounding confirmation of a universe born in a terrific...
--snip--
“What we have found is evidence for the birth of the universe and its evolution,” Dr. Smoot said in a news conference on the results in 1992.
--snip--
About a map showing the splotchy seeds of galaxy formation, he famously said, “If you are religious, it is like looking at God.”
--snip--
He received a fair amount of ribbing in the news media for that comment. In an interview with The New York Times in 1992, he said, “It really is like finding the driving mechanism for the universe, and isn’t that what God is?”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Home grown Nobel winners?
Obstetrical Sonography: The Best Way to Terrify a Pregnant Woman
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
The same Smoot who is already famous for giving his name to the certain unit of distance measure, utilized exclusively and with great precision for gauging the length of the Harvard Bridge ?
The Galaxy is 1x10^24 Smoots.
Quick trivia: How big is a "smoot"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.