The Universe: Mapped!

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) could easily be called the "Will Make Awesome Papers" system - it's just after releasing another gift box of cosmological data, accompanied by seven submissions to the Astrophysical Journal and many more to follow.  One system hasn't given rise to this much astrophysical publication since Hans Lippershey filed a patent for "a tube with two lenses in it" in 1608.

The WMAP has the minor task of mapping the entire universe, a job it's been at for five years now.  It achieves a clear view in a complicated Lissajous orbit, constantly keeping its back to the sun and the Earth and thus avoiding the electromagnetic interference we constantly pump out.  The farsighted satellite has already scanned the heavens ten times, proving that you can get an awful lot done if you go somewhere you can't watch TV.

In a field constantly held back by the difficulties in going out and getting data, the WMAP reports are precious.  Already the new data has strongly affected the development of cosmological theories, disproving some while improving others.  It has found evidence for cosmic neutrinos, and considering those could fly through the Earth ten million times and never leave a trace, that's pretty impressive.  It has also produced incredible pictures of the birth of the universe.

How does it do that?  By looking at it.  It really is that simple (if you ignore the incredibly difficult system design, detector launch and data interpretation).  Light takes time to travel, and when the distances involved are "The entire size of the universe" it can take a while to get here - thirteen point seven billion years, to be exact. Light from the beginning of the universe, losing energy over time and shifting down to microwavelengths due to cosmic expansion, is still visible from the right vantage point - and tells us about the evolution of this spacetime we call home.

The origin of stars, slowly born over five hundred million years from vast clouds of stellar fog, has been observed.  Even the very Big Bang itself - the first trillionth of a second of everything - is under closer scrutiny than ever before.  We haven't worked out what's happening yet, but the data brings us closer than every before.  And WMAP is still up there, collecting information for the next round of universal revelations.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Related Galaxy posts:

"78 Billion": A 'Hubble' Video of the Most Profound Images Ever Filmed

GAIA -Mapping the Family Tree of the Milky Way

The "Hubble Effect" -A Galaxy Insight

Link: WMAP Five-year results http://www.physorg.com/news124169694.html