Oct 3 2006
From The Space Library
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics to NASA scientist John C. Mather and University of California, Berkeley, scientist George F. Smoot. The pair received the award for research that strongly supported the Big Bang Theory as the definitive explanation of the universe’s origin. Mather and Smoot had used data from NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) to observe the universe 380,000 years after its inception. They had determined that the temperature of the cosmic microwave background—essentially, the Big Bang’s afterglow—was approximately -455ºF. Their observations matched earlier predictions made by other scientists and indicated that nearly all of the universe’s radiant energy—the energy of light and other electromagnetic waves—had been released during the first year after the Big Bang. The pair also discovered slight temperature variations in this relatively uniform light, indicating the density differences in matter that had led to the creation of stars, galaxies, and the universe’s hierarchical structure.
Nobel Foundation, “The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006,” 3 October 2006, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/press.html (accessed 31 March 2010); NASA, “NASA Scientist John C. Mather Wins 2006 Nobel Physics Prize,” news release 06-327, 3 October 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/oct/HQ_06327_Mather_Nobel_prize.html (accessed 31 March 2010).
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