Robert Woodrow Wilson

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Robert Woodrow Wilson
Robert Wilson (28215880301) (cropped).jpg
Wilson in 2016
Born (1936-01-10) January 10, 1936 (age 88)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Rice University
California Institute of Technology
Known for Cosmic microwave background radiation
Spouse
Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin
(m. 1958)
Awards Henry Draper Medal (1977)
Nobel Prize in Physics (1978)
Scientific career
Fields Physics
InstitutionsBell Laboratories
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American astronomer who, along with Arno Allan Penzias, discovered cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in 1964. [1] The pair won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for its discovery. [2]

Contents

While doing tests and experiments with the Holmdel Horn Antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, Wilson and Penzias discovered a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. [3] After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory.

In 1970, Wilson led a team that made the first detection of a rotational spectral line of carbon monoxide (CO) in an astronomical object, the Orion Nebula, and eight other galactic sources. [4] Subsequently, CO observations became the standard method of tracing cool molecular interstellar gas, and detection of CO was the foundational event for the fields of millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.

Life and work

Penzias and Wilson stand at the 15 meter Holmdel Horn Antenna that brought their most notable discovery Horn Antenna-in Holmdel, New Jersey - restoration1.jpg
Penzias and Wilson stand at the 15 meter Holmdel Horn Antenna that brought their most notable discovery

Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar High School in River Oaks, in Houston, [5] and studied as an undergraduate at Rice University, also in Houston, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society. He then earned a PhD in physics at California Institute of Technology. His thesis advisors at Caltech included John Bolton [6] and Maarten Schmidt. [6]

Wilson and Penzias also won the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977. [7] Wilson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1987. [8]

Wilson remained at Bell Laboratories until 1994, when he was named a senior scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [9]

Wilson has been a resident of Holmdel Township, New Jersey. [10]

Wilson married Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin [11] in 1958. [12]

Wilson is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President George W. Bush in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. [13]

Wilson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2009. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmic microwave background</span> Trace radiation from the early universe

The cosmic microwave background is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. It is a remnant that provides an important source of data on the primordial universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dark. However, a sufficiently sensitive radio telescope detects a faint background glow that is almost uniform and is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object. This glow is strongest in the microwave region of the radio spectrum. The accidental discovery of the CMB in 1965 by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson was the culmination of work initiated in the 1940s.

Cosmic noise, also known as galactic radio noise, is a physical phenomenon derived from outside of the Earth's atmosphere. It is not actually sound, and it can be detected through a radio receiver, which is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information given by them to an audible form. Its characteristics are comparable to those of thermal noise. Cosmic noise occurs at frequencies above about 15 MHz when highly directional antennas are pointed toward the Sun or other regions of the sky, such as the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Celestial objects like quasars, which are super dense objects far from Earth, emit electromagnetic waves in their full spectrum, including radio waves. The fall of a meteorite can also be heard through a radio receiver; the falling object burns from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, ionizing surrounding gases and producing radio waves. Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) from outer space is also a form of cosmic noise. CMBR is thought to be a relic of the Big Bang, and pervades the space almost homogeneously over the entire celestial sphere. The bandwidth of the CMBR is wide, though the peak is in the microwave range.

Timeline of knowledge about the interstellar medium and intergalactic medium:

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The Holmdel Horn Antenna is a large microwave horn antenna that was used as a satellite communication antenna and radio telescope during the 1960s at the Bell Telephone Laboratories facility located on Crawford Hill in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 because of its association with the research work of two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.

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References

  1. May 2014, Mike Wall 20 (May 20, 2014). "Cosmic Anniversary: 'Big Bang Echo' Discovered 50 Years Ago Today". Space.com. Retrieved March 13, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1978". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  3. Penzias, A.A.; Wilson, R.W. (1965). "A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s". Astrophysical Journal . 142: 419–421. Bibcode:1965ApJ...142..419P. doi: 10.1086/148307 .
  4. Wilson, R.W.; Jefferts, K.B.; Penzias, A.A. (1970). "Carbon Monoxide in the Orion Nebula". Astrophysical Journal . 161: L43–L44. Bibcode:1970ApJ...161L..43W. doi: 10.1086/180567 .
  5. "Distinguished HISD Alumni Archived February 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine ," Houston Independent School District
  6. 1 2 "Robert Woodrow Wilson / Biographical". My thesis project was to have been hydrogen-line interferometry, but when the first plans for a local oscillator system didn't work out, I used the galactic survey as the basis for my thesis. John Bolton returned to Australia before I completed my Ph.D. Maarten Schmidt, who had previously done galactic research and was currently working on quasars, saw me through the last months of thesis work. I remained at Caltech for an additional year as a postdoctoral fellow to finish several projects in which I was involved.
  7. "Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences . Retrieved February 24, 2011.
  8. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  9. "Facts on File History Database Center". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  10. Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971–1980, Editor Stig Lundqvist, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1992. Autobiography on Nobelprize.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg . Accessed March 15, 2011. "We still live in the house in Holmdel which we bought when I first came to Bell Laboratories."
  11. "Robert Woodrow Wilson - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  12. "Robert Woodrow Wilson". www.nndb.com. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  13. "A Letter from America's Physics Nobel Laureates" (PDF).
  14. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 23, 2021.

Sources