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Cosmic Microwave Background Blackbody Spectrum

1990
PhysicsAstrophysics & CosmologyEmpirical Resultfoundational

The COBE satellite's FIRAS instrument measured the cosmic microwave background spectrum to be a near-perfect blackbody (John Mather, 1990) -- one of the most precise blackbody-spectrum measurements ever made of anything, confirming a core prediction of Big Bang cosmology. Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize (with Smoot) for this and the related anisotropy work.

Discovery Velocity

Normalized OpenAlex paper velocity, one point per year.

Originators

  • John C. Mather

Landmark Paper

W2079724444 ↗
Not retracted (OpenAlex)

Checked 2026-08-30 — interim signal only, see docs/BASIC_ROADMAP.md Phase 10

Connections

No verified edges into the applied tree or elsewhere in Basic yet — never rendered as fabricated, just absent.