Rocket measurement of the cosmic-background-radiation mm-wave spectrum
Abstract
We report here the most precise constraint to date on the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation (CBR), obtained from measurements made with a liquid-helium-cooled spectrometer carried above the atmosphere on a rocket. The spectrum is very well fitted by a Planck function of temperature T=2.736 K. The scatter of the equivalent temperature in the band 3-16 cm-1 is +/-10 mK, about 1/3% of the mean whereas the estimated overall accuracy of the mean temperature is +/-17 mK. These results are inconsistent with a previously reported excess IR intensity in the CBR but are in good agreement with COBE results.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- July 1990
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.537
- Bibcode:
- 1990PhRvL..65..537G
- Keywords:
-
- Compton Effect;
- Radiation Spectra;
- Red Shift;
- Relic Radiation;
- Rocket-Borne Instruments;
- Big Bang Cosmology;
- Liquid Cooling;
- Liquid Helium;
- Plancks Constant;
- Space Radiation;
- 98.70.Vc;
- 98.80.Es;
- Background radiations;
- Observational cosmology