WMAP team reveals nine years worth of rich cosmos data

NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission has released its final results, a collection of nine years worth of observations which have served to map the universe and improve the field of cosmology.

UBC Physics and Astronomy professor Gary Hinshaw participated in the project headed by Johns Hopkins astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett, helping establish what is now dubbed the Standard Cosmological Model.

“WMAP observations form the cornerstone of the standard model of cosmology,” says Hinshaw. “Other data are consistent and when combined we now know precise values for the history, composition, and geometry of the universe.”

The WMAP team determined not only the age of the universe (13.75 billion years, a figure accurate to within 1 percent), but the epoch when the first stars started to shine, the “lumpiness” of the universe, and how that “lumpiness” depends on scale size. Thanks to WMAP, cosmologists now know that 24 percent of the universe consists of dark matter and 71 percent of dark energy, with only 4.6 percent consisting of ordinary matter, such as planets and stars.

WMAP launched on June 30, 2001 and maneuvered to its observing station a million miles from Earth, mapping the sky and scrutinizing the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. Its first results were issued in February 2003, with major updates in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and now this final release.

In 2012, the WMAP team – including UBC’s Hinshaw and Mark Halpern – was awarded the 2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize for their work.