Results
Compared to MAXIMA's competitor the BOOMERanG experiment, MAXIMA's data covers a smaller part of the sky but with much more detail. By the end of the year 2000 the experiment provided the most accurate measurements of the cosmic background radiation (CMB) fluctuations on small angular scales. With this data it is possible to calculate the first three acoustic peaks from the CMB power spectrum. These greatly confirm the standard cosmological model by measuring a baryon density of about 4%, which agrees with the density calculated from Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The measurement of the flatness of the Universe also confirms a major prediction of inflationary cosmology, although BOOMERang was the first to discover this.
Read more about this topic: Millimeter Anisotropy E Xperiment IMaging Array
Famous quotes containing the word results:
“It amazes me when I hear any person prefer blindness to deafness. Such a person must have a terrible dread of being alone. Blindness makes one totally dependent on others, and deprives us of every satisfaction that results from light.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life—are alike forbidden.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)