Goodbye and Thanks to WMAP, the Satellite That Mapped the History of the Universe
WMAP Satellite NASA The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, has been gathering information about the Big Bang, dark matter, and the nature of the universe for nine years now, and it's finally being put to rest (rest being a "parking orbit" around the sun). WMAP, a joint project of NASA and Princeton University, launched in 2001 with the goal of studying the cosmic microwave background, basically the atoms remaining that began releasing radiation closest to the Big Bang. This data has allowed cosmologists an unprecedented amount of insight into the earliest workings of the universe, enabling them to answer with reasonable certainty such questions as "how old is the universe?" In fact, WMAP is actually listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for its success in pinpointing the age of the universe more precisely than any other tool in history: 13.75 billion years old, give or take 0.11 billion....