First Cosmological Results From MAP

riptalon writes "The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a NASA Explorer mission has announced the first results based on a year of observations from the L2 Lagrangian point. MAP carries two back-to-back microwave telescopes to study variations in the cosmic microwave background, to much greater accuracy than the COBE satellite. The excruciating details of the results on the age, geometry and composition of the universe can be found in this paper. Executive summary: 13.7 billion years old, flat, 4.4% baryons, 22% dark matter and 73% dark energy."

Comments

Re:huh?

[Captain Nitpick]

In astronomy, "baryons" can also include "leptons", simply because leptons are included in the mass that one measures using a galaxy rotation curve.

Nope. Baryons are the heavy particles made up of three quarks. Leptons are light particles that are themselves fundamental particles. In between are mesons, made of a quark and antiquark.

You've got to remember that the terminology astronomers use is a bit...different. This is much like how they call anything heavier than helium a "metal".