Early results from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)

Conference · Fri Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 1992 · AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States)

OSTI ID:7044590

Mather, J C; Hauser, M G; Bennett, C L; Boggess, N W; Cheng, E S; Eplee, Jr, R E; Freudenreich, H T; Isaacman, R B; Kelsall, T; Lisse, C M; Moseley, Jr, S H; Shafer, R A; Silverberg, R F; Spiesman, W J; Toller, G N; Weiland, J L ^[1]; Gulkis, S; Jansssen, M ^[2]; Lubin, P M ^[3]; Meyer, S S ; Weiss, R ^[4]; Murdock, T L ^[5]; Smoot, G F ^[6]; Wilkinson, D T ^[7]

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1. Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 169-506, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109 (United States)
3. UCSB Department of Physics, Goleta, California 93106 (United States)
4. Room 20F-001, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
5. General Research Corporation, 5 Cherry Hill Drive, Suite 220, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923 (United States)
6. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 50-232, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
7. Dep

The Cosmic Background Explorer, launched November 18, 1989, has nearly completed its first full mapping of the sky with all three of its instruments: a Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) covering 0.1 to 10 mm, a set of Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) operating at 3.3, 5.7, and 9.6 mm, and a Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) spanning 1 to 300 {mu}m in ten bands. A preliminary map of the sky derived from DIRBE data is presented. Initial cosmological implications include: a limit on the Comptonization {ital y} parameter of 10{sup {minus}3}, on the chemical potential {mu} parameter of 10{sup {minus}2}, a strong limit on the existence of a hot smooth intergalactic medium, and a confirmation that the dipole anisotropy has the spectrum expected from a Doppler shift of a blackbody. There are no significant anisotropies in the microwave sky detected, other than from our own galaxy and a cos {theta} dipole anisotropy whose amplitude and direction agree with previous data. At shorter wavelengths, the sky spectrum and anisotropies are dominated by emission from local' sources of emission within our Galaxy and Solar System. Preliminary comparison of {ital IRAS} and {ital DIRBE} sky brightnesses toward the ecliptic poles shows the {ital IRAS} values to be significantly higher than found by {ital DIRBE} at 100 {mu}m. We suggest the presence of gain and zero-point errors in the {ital IRAS} total brightness data. The spacecraft, instrument designs, and data reduction methods are described.

• OSTI ID: 7044590
• Report Number(s): CONF-9104323--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States) Journal Volume: 245:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661300* -- Other Aspects of Physical Science-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPTON EFFECT
DESIGN
DETECTION
DOPPLER EFFECT
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EVALUATION
EXPLORER SATELLITES
FAR INFRARED RADIATION
INFRARED RADIATION
INTERACTIONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
RADIATIONS
RELICT RADIATION
SATELLITES
SCATTERING
SPECTROPHOTOMETERS