The Astrophysical Journal Letters authors awarded 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics Suzanne Wu / 05 Oct 2006 15:29 UTC
**With apologies for cross-posting** For Immediate Release: October 5, 2006 Contact: Suzanne Wu / 773-834-0386 / swu@press.uchicago.edu The Astrophysical Journal Letters authors awarded 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics John C. Mather (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) and George F. Smoot (University of California, Berkeley) have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for collaborative work exploring the infancy of the universe, findings which first appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Astronomical Society. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize, Dr. Mather and Dr. Smoot received the prize for work that studied cosmic microwave background radiation in the first few instants after the universe was formed. Using data from NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), their findings – which confirmed predictions of the Big Bang scenario – offer an important clue into the origins of how matter began to aggregate, and thus how galaxies, stars, and life was able to develop. “A preliminary measurement of the cosmic microwave background spectrum by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite” by Mather et al. was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in 1990: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/185717. “Structure in the COBE differential microwave radiometer first-year maps” by Smoot et al. was published in 1992 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/186504. For more coverage of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics and Dr. Mather and Dr. Smoot’s groundbreaking research, please visit: - Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/press.html - NASA News: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/nobel_prize_mather.html - UC Berkeley News: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/10/03_nobelph.shtml -- About The Astrophysical Journal: Begun in 1895 by George E. Hale and James E. Keeler, The Astrophysical Journal is the foremost research journal in the world devoted to recent developments, discoveries, and theories in astronomy and astrophysics. Many of the classic discoveries of the twentieth century have first been reported in the Journal, which has also presented much of the important recent work on quasars, pulsars, neutron stars, black holes, solar and stellar magnetic fields, X-rays, and interstellar matter. The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Letters are published by the University of Chicago Press for the American Astronomical Society. About the American Astronomical Society: The American Astronomical Society is the largest professional organization for professional researchers in Astronomy and closely related fields. Founded in 1899 by George Ellery Hale, the Society publishes the leading research journals in the field including The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, and The Astronomical Journal. The Society has roughly 6500 members, many from outside North America. It holds two general meetings per year, has five specialist divisions for planetary science, dynamical astronomy, high energy astrophysics, solar physics and the history of astronomy. It also carries out programs in education, public policy and career services for research astronomers. The Society is based in Washington, D.C. and maintains a website at www.aas.org. About the University of Chicago Press: Founded in 1891, the University of Chicago Press is the largest American university press. The Journals Division currently publishes forty-seven award-winning periodicals and serials in a wide range of disciplines, including several journals that were the first scholarly publications in their respective fields. Online since 1995, the Journals Division has also been a pioneer in electronic publishing, delivering original, peer-reviewed research from international scholars to a worldwide audience.