WMAP Results

[fafalone]

Discussion thread for the news article.

[fafalone]

The Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, launched in June 2001 at a cost of $145 million, looked back to the very beginning of the universe by looking at the cosmic microwave background radiation, the energy which keeps the temperature of a vacuum at 2.725K, just above absolute zero. Temperature changes in the CMB were mapped within 35 millionths of a degree, making the pictures 35 times sharper than COBE, MAP's predecessor. The new findings were measured using very different frequencies: K-Band, Ka-Band, Q-Band, V-Band, and W-Band.

Age of the Universe

The first frame of the picture on the left of of the cosmic microwave background radiation just 379,000 years after the Big Bang, over 13.7 billion years ago-- the estimated age of the universe, within 0.2 billion years.

The Hubble Constant

The measured value of the Hubble constant was 71 +4/-3 km/s/Mpc, the most accurate measure ever. This means that the geometry of the universe is flat with adiabatic Gaussian fluctuations on a scale-invariant spectrum.

Decoupling and Reionization

The age of decoupling was also determined to be 379 +8/-7 thousand years, at a redshift of 1089 +/- 1. The age of decoupling refers to when the universe became transparent.

This was the most accurate determination of the age of reionization to date. The determined value is 180 million years. This epoch was when the opaqueness of the universe was broken by the cooling matter being split from hydrogen to a proton and an electron.

Matter Condensation

Frame 2 shows areas of higher density pulling in matter from areas of lower density, which led to matter condensation. The WMAP indicated that the matter created during the big bang condensed approximately 200 million years after the big bang; much earlier than previously estimated. (Frame 3). Frames 4 and 5 show the formation of stars and galaxies from this condensation.

Above: Detailed image of the CMB, combined from all bands.

Composition and Fate of the Universe

The question of dark matter and dark energy has also been answered. The WMAP indicated that the universe has the following composition: dark energy 73%, dark matter 23%, atoms 4%. That 4% makes up all the stars and planets, and us. The dark energy is the force that overcomes gravity to keep the universe expanding. The 73% density of dark energy means that the universe will keep expanding forever, eventually resulting in a heat death. "Not with a bang, but with a whimper"

The data about dark energy provides some vindication for what Einstein called the greatest blunder of his career- the cosmological constant. It now appears as though the dark energy is what the cosmological constant referred to, although quintessence is another possible role of it.

Neutrinos, though present, did not significantly interact with matter as to influence the early development of matter.

 

Technical papers: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/pub_papers/firstyear.html

 

WMAP mission results home page:

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm.html

 

 

Discuss

[aman]

If we keep expanding forever then I wonder if matter will actually decay first, or just get so cold due to expansion that it loses its structure. Whatever it's going to be real cold.

Just aman

[Garry7.83 Hz]

I remember many years ago they had found the *lifespan* of the proton............it was a huge number.

 

Something like a ten with about eighty zeros (don't hold me to the exact number)

 

Couple that with todays information about expanding until "check-out"......................and we're talking about a HUGE universe when all is done.

[PogoC7]

LOOK DOWN

[PogoC7]

Wow, makes me feel much smaller.

How will this information help us. We already thought all that to be true, right? What other advances will this lead too?

This seems to be a good foundation, but the real questions are still to be anwsered, but not by me.

[fafalone]

The new information will help us learn more about how the universe formed... once we fully understand that, who knows what we'll be able to do.

[aman]

Thats so right, knowledge in one avenue opens up applications down so many other hidden roads. It just takes some good minds.

Just aman

[fafalone]

bump

[fafalone]

What's the distribution of dark matter/energy; is it found in the same vicinity as 'normal' matter/energy, or are regions containing both discrete?

[fafalone]

Bump.

 

 

The data also suggests the universe might be shaped like a donut... and if you went over the edge you'd reappear on the other side. I don't know about that... since if the matter of the universe of the can expand, the matter of whatever you're travelling in should be able to continue into the void too.

[DocBill]

Torus. Nope. actually, rather Eggish. The cosmos in about 1 X 10^22 will be cold, empty and thinn. Proton decay, blackhole evaporation and .00001 K.

 

Bill

[fafalone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/11/science/space/11COSM.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

[alt_f13]

Originally posted by fafalone

Bump.

 

 

The data also suggests the universe might be shaped like a donut... and if you went over the edge you'd reappear on the other side. I don't know about that... since if the matter of the universe of the can expand, the matter of whatever you're travelling in should be able to continue into the void too.

 

Might they be suggesting spacetime is curved like a torus? I've heard theories where matter cannot exist outside of spacetime flux. Perhaps while space as we experience it is eggshaped, spacetime is torus shaped.

 

And what is outside the universe? If the universe denotes dimension, there would not even exist a void beyond its limits. There would be nothing, not even a complete vacuum where matter could possibly exist.