APOD: CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the... (2014 Jun 15)

[bls0326]

know a little about CMB, expansion, etc. Looked at the map, read the discussions. Still do not understand what the red in middle of the blue means. If we are moving in the direction of blue shifted areas, how are we moving away from the red area in the middle of the blue. Or is the red indicating something else totally and the orange area is the other side of the sky we are moving away from. Or???

Brian

[Chris Peterson]

know a little about CMB, expansion, etc. Looked at the map, read the discussions. Still do not understand what the red in middle of the blue means. If we are moving in the direction of blue shifted areas, how are we moving away from the red area in the middle of the blue. Or is the red indicating something else totally and the orange area is the other side of the sky we are moving away from.

Calibrate your monitor. There is no red. The scale covers a few millikelvins, with violet being coldest and orange being hottest. In the lower left you should be seeing a blue zone with violet in its center. We are moving away from the yellow and orange region in the upper right, and towards the blue and violet region in the lower left.

[bls0326]

Thanks. That makes sense now. I knew I had to be missing something.
Brian

[DavidLeodis]

I am wondering if there is a reason why this APOD is titled 'CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe' yet on the last three uses of this image those APODs were titled 'CMBR Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe'.

I'm having trouble finding what happened to the COBE satellite when its 4-year mission ended. Did it burn up or is it still in orbit but perhaps no longer working for very many years? Thanks for any help.

[neufer]

I am wondering if there is a reason why this APOD is titled 'CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe' yet on the last three uses of this image those APODs were titled 'CMBR Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe'.

"CaMBRidge" is such a relic term:

<<The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the thermal radiation assumed to be left over from the "Big Bang" of cosmology. In older literature, the CMB is also variously known as cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) or "relic radiation.">>

I'm having trouble finding what happened to the COBE satellite when its 4-year mission ended. Did it burn up or is it still in orbit but perhaps no longer working for very many years? Thanks for any help.

Big Bang satellite to be switched off
STEVE CONNOR , Science Correspondent, 09 November 1993

<<The American space agency, Nasa, has added Cobe to a growing list of projects that have fallen victim to the US government's budget cuts. George Smoot, a principal investigator on the Cobe project, said in London yesterday that he was officially told last month that the Cobe research would be cut. 'The satellite will probably be turned off at the end of January and that's for lack of money. We've known for a while that there are money pressures in the US, and it costs about dollars 500,000 a year to run Cobe.' We approached the Europeans because you go where the opportunities are.'>>

<<COBE was launched November 18, 1989. Instrument operations were terminated December 23, 1993. As of January 1994, engineering operations were to conclude that month, after which operation of the spacecraft was transferred to Wallops for use as a test satellite.>>

[DavidLeodis]

Thanks neufer for your help, which is appreciated.

[Guest]

"Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies. The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies." So all of these objects are orbiting larger objects, yet the Local Group is falling toward the Virgo Cluster. How do we know the Local Group is not also in orbit about something, but we just can't perceive the scale?

[Chris Peterson]

"Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies. The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies." So all of these objects are orbiting larger objects, yet the Local Group is falling toward the Virgo Cluster. How do we know the Local Group is not also in orbit about something, but we just can't perceive the scale?

"The Local Group is falling toward the Virgo Cluster" means that it is in orbit around it. The Virgo Cluster (and us along with it) is in orbit around the Virgo Supercluster.