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Study bolsters Big Bang theory

John C. Mather (left) and George F. Smoot

STOCKHOLM (Sweden): Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that helped cement the Big Bang theory of how the universe was created and deepen understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars.

The scientists shared the prestigious 10 million kronor award for discovering the nature of ``blackbody radiation'' — cosmic background radiation believed to stem from the Big Bang — the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said.

Mr. Mather (60), and Mr. Smoot (61), based their work on measurements done with the help of the NASA-launched Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite in 1989. They were able to observe the universe in its early stages about 380,000 years after it was born. Ripples in the light they detected also helped demonstrate how galaxies came together over time. ``They have not proven the Big Bang theory but they give it very strong support,'' said Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

``It is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest. It increases our knowledge of our place in the universe.'' Mr. Mather works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Mr. Smoot works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Reached at his home, Mr. Smoot said he was surprised to have got a wake-up call from the Nobel Committee in the middle of the night. ``I was surprised that they even knew my number. After the discovery I got so many calls I unlisted it,'' he said.

Fabulous discovery

``The discovery was sort of fabulous, it was an incredible milestone. Now this is a great honour and recognition. It's amazing,'' he said. Mr. Mather said he was ``thrilled and amazed'' at receiving the prize. Mr. Mather said he and Mr. Smoot did not realise how important their work was at the time of their discovery.

By confirming the predictions of the Big Bang theory, which states that the universe was born of a dense state billions of years ago, with direct quantitative evidence, the scientists transformed the study of the early universe from a largely theoretical pursuit into a new era of direct observation and measurement. The COBE project gave strong support for the Big Bang theory because it is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave radiation measured by the satellite.

``The detailed observations that the laureates have carried out from the COBE have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science,'' the academy said in its citation. Since 1986, Americans have either won or shared the physics prize with people from other countries 15 times. Monday's medicine prize also went to two Americans. — AP

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