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A preliminary measurement of the cosmic microwave background spectrum by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite
Abstract
We present a preliminary spectrum of the background radiation between 1 and 20 cm^-1^ (1 cm to 0.5 mm wavelength) from regions near the north Galactic pole, as observed by the FIRAS instrument on the COBE satellite. The spectral resolution is 1 cm^-1^. The spectrum is well fitted by a blackbody with a temperature of 2.735 +/- 0.06 K, and the deviation from a blackbody is less than 1% of the peak intensity over the range 1-20 cm^-1^. These new data show no evidence for the submillimeter excess previously reported by Matsumoto et al. in 1988 in the cosmic microwave background. Further analysis and additional data are expected to improve the sensitivity to deviations from a blackbody spectrum by an order of magnitude.
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Cited by
Bennett, C. L., Halpern, M., Hinshaw, G., Jarosik, N., Kogut, A., Limon, M., Meyer, S. S., Page, L., Spergel, D. N., Tucker, G. S., et al. (2003) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/377253 · Cited by 4,860
Self-citationWood‐Vasey, W. M., Miknaitis, G., Stubbs, C. W., Jha, S., Riess, A. G., Garnavich, P. M., Kirshner, R. P., Aguilera, C., Becker, A. C., Blackman, J. W., et al. (2007) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/518642 · Cited by 928
Astrophysical constraints on massive unstable neutral relic particles
Ellis, J., Gelmini, G. B., Lopez, J. L., Nanopoulos, D. V., & Sarkar, S. (1992) · Nuclear Physics B · doi:10.1016/0550-3213(92)90438-h · Cited by 386
Di Valentino, E., Said, J. L., Riess, A., Pollo, A., Poulin, V., Gómez-Valent, A., Weltman, A., Palmese, A., Huang, C. D., Bruck, C. V. D., et al. (2025) · Physics of the Dark Universe · doi:10.1016/j.dark.2025.101965 · Cited by 319
Cyburt, R. H. (2004) · Physical Review D · doi:10.1103/physrevd.70.023505 · Cited by 294
Metadata
- Authors
- Mather, J. C., Cheng, E. S., Eplee, R. E., Jr., Isaacman, R. B., Meyer, S. S., Shafer, R. A., Weiss, R., Wright, E. L., Bennett, C. L., Boggess, N. W., Dwek, E., Gulkis, S., Hauser, M. G., Janssen, M., Kelsall, T., Lubin, P. M., Moseley, S. H., Jr., Murdock, T. L., Silverberg, R. F., Smoot, G. F., & Wilkinson, D. T.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 1990-05
- Volume
- 354
- Pages
- L37
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2079724444
- Cited by
- 581
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 82.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- The paper
- Mather, J. C., Cheng, E. S., Eplee, R. E., Jr., Isaacman, R. B., Meyer, S. S., Shafer, R. A., Weiss, R., Wright, E. L., Bennett, C. L., Boggess, N. W., Dwek, E., Gulkis, S., Hauser, M. G., Janssen, M., Kelsall, T., Lubin, P. M., Moseley, S. H., Jr., Murdock, T. L., Silverberg, R. F., . . . Wilkinson, D. T. (1990). A preliminary measurement of the cosmic microwave background spectrum by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1086/185717
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