1994/01/01 by John C. Mather, E. S. Cheng, D. A. Cottingham +20 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
paper · doi:10.1086/173574
openalex publication_date 1994/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) has a blackbody spectrum within 3.4 X 10-8^ ergs cm-2^ s-1^ sr-1^ cm over the frequency range from 2 to 20 cm-1^ (5-0.5 mm). These measurements, derived from the FIRAS instrument on the COBE satellite, imply stringent limits on energy release in the early universe after t~1 year and redshift z~3 x 106^. The deviations are less than 0.03% of the peak brightness, with an rms value of 0.01%, and the dimensionless cosmological distortion parameters are limited to |y| < 2.5 x 10-5^ and |μ| < 3.3 x 10-4^(95% confidence level). The temperature of the CMBR is 2.726 +/- 0.010 K (95% confidence level systematic).