George Smoot

George Smoot is an American astrophysicist who shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background.

John C. Mather: An American astrophysicist who shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for measurements of the cosmic microwave background. Mather led COBE’s satellite project, whose measurements established the spectrum and anisotropies Smoot studied.
Cosmic microwave background: The relic radiation released when the early universe became transparent, now observed as microwave light across the sky. Its temperature pattern was the signal Smoot’s team sought to measure.
Cosmic microwave background anisotropy: A small variation in the cosmic microwave background’s temperature or polarization across the sky. Smoot’s COBE team detected large-scale temperature anisotropies, revealing structure in the early universe.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1861. Smoot earned his undergraduate degrees there before turning to experimental physics and astrophysics.
2006 Nobel Prize in Physics: The Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John C. Mather and George Smoot for cosmic microwave background discoveries. The award recognized measurements that established the background’s spectrum and revealed its anisotropies.
Rashid Sunyaev: A Russian astrophysicist known for theoretical work on the cosmic microwave background and galaxy clusters. Sunyaev’s predictions helped frame the search for primordial background anisotropies.
Differential Microwave Radiometer: A COBE instrument that compared microwave brightness in two directions to measure cosmic background temperature differences. Its differential measurements produced the anisotropy map associated with Smoot’s work.
Cosmic inflation: A proposed brief period of accelerated expansion in the very early universe. Inflation offers an account of how primordial fluctuations could become the anisotropies measured by COBE.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: A United States Department of Energy research laboratory in Berkeley, California. Smoot conducted the research there that led to his COBE work and long career in cosmology.
Cosmic perspective: A view of human life and history in relation to the scale and age of the universe. Smoot’s public lectures and writing used cosmology to consider humanity’s place in cosmic history.

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