Portal:Physics/Selected article/Week 45, 2006



The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), also referred to as Explorer 66, was the first satellite built dedicated to cosmology. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) of the universe and provide measurements that would help shape our understanding of the cosmos.

This work helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE-project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science". Two of COBE's principal investigators, George Smoot and John Mather, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006.