WMAP Team Wins Breakthrough Prize
December 7, 2017
On December 3, 2017, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) science team was awarded the 2018 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics (https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1/L3809). The WMAP team, led by Dr. Charles Bennett of Johns Hopkins University, was an international team of 27 scientists and includes the following current or former ADNET employees: Michael Greason, Robert S. Hill, Michele Limon, Nils Odegard and Janet Weiland.
WMAP launched on June 30, 2001. Over the course of its nine year mission, it mapped the residual radiation emitted 375,000 years after the Big Bang across the entire sky. The science team used this information to measure the age (13.77 billion years), composition (4.6% atoms, 24% dark matter, 71.4% dark energy) and shape (flat) of the universe. Further information can be found at https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/
