Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views
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a spacecraft which measures differences in the temperature of the Big Bang's remnant radiant heat – the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation – across the full sky
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The WMAP mission succeeds the COBE space mission and was the second medium-class (MIDEX) spacecraft of the Explorer program.
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WMAP data are very well fit by a universe that is dominated by dark energy in the form of a cosmological constant
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The anisotropies then are used to measure the universe's geometry, content, and evolution; and to test the Big Bang model, and the cosmic inflation theory
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shaped for optimal performance: a carbon fibre shell upon a Korex core, thinly-coated with aluminium and silicon oxide.
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The secondary reflectors transmit the signals to the corrugated feedhorns that sit on a focal plane array box beneath the primary reflectors
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The receivers are polarization-sensitive differential radiometers measuring the difference between two telescope beams.
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To avoid collecting Milky Way galaxy foreground signals, the WMAP uses five discrete radio frequency bands
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The WMAP observes in five frequencies, permitting the measurement and subtraction of foreground contamination (from the Milky Way
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First, subtract extant emission maps from the WMAP's measurements; second, use the components' known, spectral values to identify them; third, simultaneously fit the position and spectra data of the foreground emission, using extra data sets