WMAP completes mission

On 2010-08-20, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) completed its scientific mission after nine nearly flawless years of operation at the second Earth-Sun lagrange point, L2. The ninth year of all sky surveys was completed last week and then 10 days were spend investigating various sources of systematic errors.

WMAP has been stunningly successful, producing what is now called the Standard Model of Cosmology. WMAP measured the age of the universe to 1%, measured that it is spatially flat, again to 1%. We detected the effects of the cosmic neutrino background, set a new upper limit on neutrino masses, and measured several key predictions of inflation theory. See WMAP's Top Ten for more.

UBC's Mark Halpern and his lab represent the only non-US participants in this project.