COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment
E236276
The COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment was a space-based instrument that precisely measured tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, providing key evidence for the Big Bang theory and the large-scale structure of the universe.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment canonical | 1 |
| COBE mission | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2145568 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment Context triple: [George F. Smoot, notableWork, COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment]
-
A.
Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder
The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder is a satellite-based microwave radiometer used to measure atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
-
B.
Planck spacecraft
The Planck spacecraft was a European Space Agency space observatory designed to study the cosmic microwave background radiation with unprecedented precision to improve our understanding of the early universe and cosmology.
-
C.
Planck
Planck is a German theoretical physicist renowned as the founder of quantum theory and a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics.
-
D.
Faint Object Camera
The Faint Object Camera was a high-resolution imaging instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope designed to observe very dim and distant astronomical objects in ultraviolet and visible light.
-
E.
National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer
The National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) is a space-based radiometer designed to precisely measure the total reflected and emitted energy from the sunlit side of Earth to improve understanding of the planet’s radiation budget and climate.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment Target entity description: The COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment was a space-based instrument that precisely measured tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, providing key evidence for the Big Bang theory and the large-scale structure of the universe.
-
A.
Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder
The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder is a satellite-based microwave radiometer used to measure atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
-
B.
Planck spacecraft
The Planck spacecraft was a European Space Agency space observatory designed to study the cosmic microwave background radiation with unprecedented precision to improve our understanding of the early universe and cosmology.
-
C.
Planck
Planck is a German theoretical physicist renowned as the founder of quantum theory and a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics.
-
D.
Faint Object Camera
The Faint Object Camera was a high-resolution imaging instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope designed to observe very dim and distant astronomical objects in ultraviolet and visible light.
-
E.
National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer
The National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) is a space-based radiometer designed to precisely measure the total reflected and emitted energy from the sunlit side of Earth to improve understanding of the planet’s radiation budget and climate.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
cosmic microwave background experiment
ⓘ
space-based microwave radiometer ⓘ |
| abbreviation | DMR ⓘ |
| angularResolution | about 7 degrees ⓘ |
| associatedScientist | George F. Smoot ⓘ |
| collaboration |
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
ⓘ
linked to:
Goddard Space Flight Center
Princeton University ⓘ |
| contributedTo |
Nobel Prize in Physics 2006 for COBE results
ⓘ
linked to:
Nobel Prize in Physics
|
| cosmologicalScaleProbed | large angular scales of the CMB sky ⓘ |
| dataFormat | full-sky CMB anisotropy maps ⓘ |
| dataUsedFor |
constraining cosmological models
ⓘ
estimating amplitude of matter fluctuations ⓘ studying primordial density perturbations ⓘ |
| evidenceType | temperature anisotropy maps of the CMB ⓘ |
| frequencyBand |
31.5 GHz
ⓘ
53 GHz ⓘ 90 GHz ⓘ |
| helpedEnable | development of precision cosmology ⓘ |
| hostSpacecraft |
COBE satellite
ⓘ
linked to:
Cosmic Background Explorer
|
| improvedUpon | previous upper limits on CMB anisotropy ⓘ |
| keyResult |
confirmation that CMB is nearly isotropic with tiny fluctuations
ⓘ
first detection of large-scale CMB anisotropies ⓘ measurement of CMB quadrupole and higher multipoles at large angular scales ⓘ |
| launchDate | 1989-11-18 ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Vandenberg Air Force Base
ⓘ
linked to:
Vandenberg Space Force Base
|
| launchVehicle | Delta 5920-8 ⓘ |
| locatedIn | low Earth orbit ⓘ |
| measuredQuantity | cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations ⓘ |
| measurementType | differential sky brightness temperature ⓘ |
| missionType | observational cosmology mission instrument ⓘ |
| noiseReductionTechnique | differential radiometry ⓘ |
| numberOfFrequencyBands | 3 ⓘ |
| observationMethod | differential measurement between two sky directions ⓘ |
| operatedBy | NASA ⓘ |
| partOf | Cosmic Background Explorer ⓘ |
| precision | tens of microkelvin sensitivity ⓘ |
| primaryObjective | measure temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background ⓘ |
| providedEvidenceFor |
Big Bang theory
ⓘ
linked to:
Big Bang
large-scale structure of the universe ⓘ |
| relatedInstrumentOnSameMission |
COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment
ⓘ
linked to:
Cosmic Background Explorer
COBE Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer ⓘ
linked to:
Cosmic Background Explorer
|
| scanStrategy | spin-modulated scanning of the sky ⓘ |
| scientificDiscipline |
astrophysics
ⓘ
cosmology ⓘ |
| skyCoverage | full sky ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfOperation | early 1990s ⓘ |
| wavelengthRange | microwave ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment Description of subject: The COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment was a space-based instrument that precisely measured tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, providing key evidence for the Big Bang theory and the large-scale structure of the universe.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer experiment