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U.S. duo win physics Nobel for backing up Big Bang
2006-10-03
Americans John Mather and George Smoot won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for work on cosmic radiation that helped pinpoint the age of the universe and added weight to the Big Bang theory of its birth. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.37 million) prize, said the two men were instrumental to the success of the cosmic background explorer (COBE) satellite program launched by NASA in 1989. Their work took the Big Bang theory, which holds that the universe began 15 billion years ago as a tiny dot that exploded into today's huge system of stars and planets, out of the realm of mathematical equations and into the world of precise science. When their research was published in 1992, famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking called it the "greatest discovery of the century, if not of all time." "The COBE results provided increased support for the Big Bang scenario for the origin of the universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of microwave background radiation measured by COBE," the Academy said. Mather gave credit to his whole team. "In total there were 1,500 people, so it's a huge team effort that we're recognizing today," he told Reuters. "I didn't expect this, it was a wonderful surprise this morning." The so-called blackbody radiation they looked at allowed the laureates to show the universe had cooled from its initial fiery 3,000 degrees centigrade (5,430 degrees Fahrenheit) to a chill 2.7 degrees above absolute zero. Their measurements also showed temperature variations in background radiation in space, in the range of a hundred-thousandth of a degree, that offered clues as to how galaxies, stars and planets were formed as matter coalesced. Mather, 60, coordinated the COBE program and spearheaded one of its key experiments, while astrophysicist Smoot, 61, of the University of California, Berkeley, was responsible for measuring small temperature variations in the radiation. Mather, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told a news conference over a telephone link he was "thrilled and amazed." "I can't say I am completely surprised. People have been saying we should be awarded (it)," he added. Smoot told Reuters the Nobel committee called him after first dialing the wrong number. "RIPPLES" IN SPACE "It gives us a common viewpoint on how the world came into being and what our place in it might be," he said of his work. "It is extremely important for human beings to know their origins and their place in the world." The team also found "ripples" in space, or small variations in the microwave background that provided new clues about galaxy and star formation and why matter had been concentrated in a specific place rather than spreading out. "Tiny variations in temperature could show where matter had started aggregating. Once this process had started, gravitation would take care of the rest: matter attracts matter which leads to stars and galaxies forming," the Academy said. Mather said he was already pressing forward in the search for the universe's origins as Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared telescope that will be the largest in space, able to search beyond the limits the Hubble Space Telescope can now observe. (For a list of winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics over the last 10 years, please see NOBEL-PHYSICS-WINNERS-RECENT (FACTBOX). Reuters Xtra subscribers can see the factbox by double-clicking on) (Additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom, Gelu Sulugiuc and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm and Jackie Frank and Maggie Fox in Washington). Muzi.com News
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