Universe WMAP Microwave Background

Description:

" Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP, is a NASA Explorer mission measuring the temperature of the cosmic background radiation over the full sky with unprecedented accuracy. This map of remnant heat from the Big Bang provides answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of our universe. " — From the NASA/WAMP website The probe is over 930,000 miles from Earth and effectively scans the entire sky every six months.

WMAP Third Year (33 mb)

Temperature fluctuations displayed here are 13.7 billion years old, from the time when the Big Bang was thought to have occurred. Essentially, it is a detailed, all-sky display of the young universe developed from three years of WMAP data. The blue areas are cooler while the red areas are warmer. The temperature range on this map is ± 200 microKelvin, which is incredibly small. The temperature range is so small because it doesn’t measure absolute temperature but anisotropy. Anisotropy is the difference between two measurements taken in opposite directions. This is much more accurate than simply measuring the absolute temperature in one direction. This data is used to support the Big Bang theory using inflation. The concept is that the universe expanded many trillion times its size in less than a trillionth of a second at the beginning of the Big Bang. This is a map of the remnant heat left from the big bang. According to NASA, the measurements reveal size, matter content, age, geometry, and the fate of the universe. There are two versions of this WMAP data. The first dataset is from the first year of data collected by WMAP and is lower resolution. The second dataset is from the third year of data collected and is polarized and has a higher resolution. In this third year dataset, the formation site of the Milky Way galaxy is visible in the red band.

Source: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Notable Features: First Year

Red areas are warmer and blue areas are cooler

The temperature range is ± 200 microKelvin

Notable Features: Third Year

Data is polarized and higher resolution
The Milky Way galaxy formed in the large red band

Data Category

Major: Astronomy

Keywords:

Astronomy, Solar System, Milky Way, universe, WMAP

Data Set Name	wmap_microwave/first_year
Data Set Source	NASA Image details
Data Set Developer	NASA WMAP Science Team
Visualization Developer	Steve Albers, NOAA/GSD
Audio	No
Download	FTP

Data Set Name	wmap_microwave/third_year
Data Set Source	NASA
Data Set Developer	NASA WMAP Science Team
Visualization Developer	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Audio	No
Download	FTP