COBE
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Astronomy & Space
| Stands for | Cosmic Background Explorer |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
COBE stands for Cosmic Background Explorer, an astronomy & Space abbreviation.
NASA satellite launched in 1989 that showed the cosmic microwave background has an almost perfect blackbody spectrum and detected its tiny temperature fluctuations, the seeds of galaxies. These results strongly confirmed the Big Bang model.
Example: Stephen Hawking called the COBE detection of fluctuations the discovery of the century, if not of all time.
Usage notes
John Mather and George Smoot shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for COBE's results, announced in 1990 and 1992. Its FIRAS instrument measured the spectrum, and its DMR instrument mapped the fluctuations. COBE was designed for launch on the space shuttle but moved to a Delta rocket after the Challenger accident.
Related abbreviations
More astronomy & Space abbreviations
- AU – Astronomical unit
- BBN – Big Bang nucleosynthesis
- BH – Black hole
- CMB – Cosmic microwave background
- CME – Coronal mass ejection
- CNSA – China National Space Administration
- CSM – Command and Service Module
- DART – Double Asteroid Redirection Test
- DE – Dark energy
- Dec – Declination
- delta-v – Change in velocity
- DM – Dark matter