George Smoot facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George Smoot
|
|
|---|---|
Smoot at 2009 POVO conference in The Netherlands
|
|
| Born |
George Fitzgerald Smoot III
February 20, 1945 Yukon, Florida, U.S.
|
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Cosmic microwave background radiation |
| Awards | NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1992) Kilby Award (1993) American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award (1994) E. O. Lawrence Award (1994) Albert Einstein Medal (2003) Nobel Prize in Physics (2006) Gruber Prize (2006) Daniel Chalonge Medal (2006) Oersted Medal (2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | UC Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Paris Diderot University/Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
| Thesis | Charge exchange of positive Kaon on platinum at three GeV/C (1971) |
| Doctoral advisor | David H. Frisch |
| Physical cosmology | ||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
| Universe · Big Bang Age of the universe Timeline of the Big Bang Ultimate fate of the universe
|
||||||||||||||
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006. He shared the prize with John C. Mather. They won for their work on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. Their discoveries helped us understand the early universe.
Their research confirmed the "Big Bang" theory. This theory explains how the universe began. The Nobel Prize committee said the COBE project was the start of "cosmology as a precision science." This means it made the study of the universe much more exact. Smoot gave most of his Nobel Prize money to a charity.
Smoot has worked at the University of California, Berkeley since 1970. He also works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has received many awards for his scientific work. These include the Gruber Prize in Cosmology and the Einstein Medal. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Contents
Early life and education
George Smoot was born in Yukon, Florida. He finished high school in Upper Arlington, Ohio, in 1962. He first studied mathematics in college. Later, he switched to physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned two bachelor's degrees in 1966. In 1970, he received his Ph.D. (a high-level university degree) in particle physics. A distant relative, Oliver R. Smoot, is famous for a funny unit of measure called the smoot.
Studying the early universe
George Smoot became interested in cosmology. This is the study of the universe's origin and development. He started working at Berkeley. He first helped with an experiment to find antimatter in Earth's atmosphere. This experiment used a weather balloon in the stratosphere.
Smoot then focused on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). This is faint radiation left over from the Big Bang. It was first found in 1964. Scientists had many questions about the CMB. These questions were important for understanding the universe's structure. Some theories suggested the universe was spinning. If it was, the CMB's temperature would change depending on where you looked.
Smoot and his team built a special tool called a differential radiometer. This tool measured tiny temperature differences in the CMB. They put it on a Lockheed U-2 plane. Their measurements showed that the universe was not spinning. However, they found something else. The CMB seemed warmer on one side of the sky than the other. This is called a dipole pattern. It happens because our Milky Way galaxy is moving very fast. It is moving at about 600 kilometers per second. This movement creates a Doppler effect, similar to how a siren's sound changes as it moves past you. This motion is likely due to the pull of gravity from a huge group of galaxies called the Great Attractor.
The COBE satellite mission
At first, the CMB seemed perfectly smooth. The only change was from the Doppler effect. But the universe we see today has many structures. There are galaxies and galaxy clusters. These structures formed over a long time. So, the early universe must have had tiny differences. These differences would have grown into the structures we see now. Scientists believed these tiny differences should be visible in the CMB. They would appear as very small temperature changes. Finding these tiny changes was Smoot's goal.
In the late 1970s, Smoot suggested a new project to NASA. He wanted to launch a satellite with a more sensitive detector. This detector would be like the one on the U-2 plane. But it would be in space, away from air pollution. NASA approved his idea. It became part of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite mission. COBE cost $160 million.
COBE was launched on November 18, 1989. On April 23, 1992, the COBE team announced a huge discovery. The satellite had found tiny temperature changes in the CMB. This was a major breakthrough. It provided strong evidence for how the universe began. Smoot famously said, "if you're religious, it's like looking at God."
The COBE mission was a huge team effort. Over 1,000 scientists and engineers worked on it. John Mather led the whole project. He was also in charge of the experiment that showed the CMB's perfect "blackbody" shape. Smoot's main job was to measure the tiny temperature changes in the radiation.
Smoot wrote a book about his team's work called Wrinkles in Time. He wrote it with journalist Keay Davidson. Another book, The Very First Light, by John Mather and John Boslough, also tells the COBE story. It mentions that Smoot shared news of the discovery with the press early. This happened before NASA's official announcement. Smoot later apologized for not following the team's plan. Mather said that Smoot's actions helped COBE get worldwide attention.
Other scientific work
After COBE, Smoot worked on other projects. He helped with the Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array. This experiment used a balloon to get even clearer images of the CMB. Smoot also worked on the Planck satellite. This satellite made even more detailed maps of the CMB.
He has also helped design a satellite called the Supernova/Acceleration Probe. This satellite will study dark energy. Dark energy is a mysterious force that makes the universe expand faster. Smoot also helped analyze data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. This telescope studies infrared light from space. In 2016, Smoot was a leader in a group that launched the Mikhailo Lomonosov satellite.
Smoot is also involved in modern technology. As of 2019, he works as an artificial intelligence scientist for the GTA Foundation. This company stores genetic data for scientific use. In 2020, he joined Dead Sea Premier to lead research for their anti-aging devices. In 2021, he became chief scientist for Viomi, a company in the Xiaomi group, working on AI development. In 2023, he joined the National Council for Science and Technology in Kazakhstan.
Media appearances
Smoot has appeared on the TV show The Big Bang Theory. He played himself in two episodes. He is a fan of the show's science-based plots. He even helped with a joke for one episode.
In 2009, Smoot was a contestant on the TV game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? He answered the final question correctly. He won the million-dollar prize. He was the second person ever to win the top prize on the show.
He also gave a TEDx talk in 2014. In his talk, he discussed the idea that our reality might be a computer-generated virtual reality. This is called the simulation hypothesis. In 2016, Smoot appeared in a TV commercial for Intuit TurboTax.
Selected publications
- Lubin, P. M. & G. F. Smoot. "Search for Linear Polarization of the Cosmic Background Radiation", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (Oct. 1978).
- Gorenstein, M. V.& G. F. Smoot. "Large-Angular-Scale Anisotropy in the Cosmic Background Radiation", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (May 1980).
- Smoot, G. F., De Amici, G., Friedman, S. D., Witebsky, C., Mandolesi, N., Partridge, R. B., Sironi, G., Danese, L. & G. De Zotti. "Low Frequency Measurement of the Spectrum of the Cosmic Background Radiation", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (June 1983).
- Smoot, G. F., De Amici, G., Levin, S. & C. Witebsky. "New Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation Spectrum", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (Dec. 1984).
- Smoot, G., Levin, S. M., Witebsky, C., De Amici, G., Y. Rephaeli. "An Analysis of Recent Measurements of the Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (July 1987).
- Ade, P., Balbi, A., Bock, J., Borrill, J., Boscaleri, A., de Bernardis, P., Ferreira, P. G., Hanany, S., Hristov, V. V., Jaffe, A. H., Lange, A. E., Lee, A. T., Mauskopf, P. D., Netterfield, C. B., Oh, S., Pascale, E., Rabii, B., Richards, P. L., Smoot, G. F., Stompor, R., Winant, C. D. & J. H. P. Wu. "MAXIMA-1: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy on Angular Scales of 10' to 5 degrees", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), KDI Precision Products, Inc., Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council UK, (June 4, 2005).
See also
In Spanish: George Smoot para niños
