CMB measurements grab Nobel prize

Good to see that this year's Nobel prizes in physics have gone to Mather and Smoot for separate work on the cosmic microwave background. Studies of the CMB have revolutionised cosmology. Mather measured the spectrum of the CMB and showed that it was an almost perfect black body spectrum, showing beyond a reasonable doubt that it is the red-shifted glow of the early universe. Smoot first detected and measured the miniscule temperature ripples in the CMB that carry a huge amount of information about the early universe and the way the universe evolved.


The most accurate recent measurements of the CMB have been carried out by the WMAP satellite. I've just posted a summary of the findings of WMAP from three years of observations here.