George Smoot led the COBE differential-radiometer analysis that detected angular variations in the cosmic microwave background. The measurement compared different sky directions to separate a nearly uniform background from much smaller temperature fluctuations.
The team had to account for observer motion, Galactic emission and instrumental effects before interpreting the remaining angular structure. These anisotropies supplied evidence about early cosmic inhomogeneity, complementing the distinct measurement of the background's nearly blackbody spectrum.[ref]
Structure in the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer First-Year Maps by George F. Smoot and others. First-year maps: foreground treatment, angular correlation and detected temperature structure
Portrait of George Smoot
. SCZenz, own photograph at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 3 October 2006. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, selected from the File’s alternative licenses., via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
George Smoot is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, best known for his work in the field of cosmology and for his contributions to the study of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He was born on February 20, 1945. Smoot played a significant role in the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) project, which was launched in 1989.