Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP)
On June 30, 2001, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft launched on a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral. The probe measured small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and created the most accurate full-sky map of the CMB. In 2003 it was renamed the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in honor of cosmologist David Todd Wilkinson, a member of the mission science team. Carrying on the Nobel Prize winning work of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), WMAP data has played a critical role in establishing the current standard model of cosmology. The WMAP mission team won the 2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2018 Breakthrough Prize. Designed for a 27 month mission, WMAP was decommissioned in October 2010 after nine years of operation.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: KSC-01PP-1240
Date: June 30, 2001
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP)
On June 30, 2001, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft launched on a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral. The probe measured small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and created the most accurate full-sky map of the CMB. In 2003 it was renamed the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in honor of cosmologist David Todd Wilkinson, a member of the mission science team. Carrying on the Nobel Prize winning work of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), WMAP data has played a critical role in establishing the current standard model of cosmology. The WMAP mission team won the 2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2018 Breakthrough Prize. Designed for a 27 month mission, WMAP was decommissioned in October 2010 after nine years of operation.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: KSC-01PP-1240
Date: June 30, 2001