The COBE Probe
Evolution Says....
The Facts Are .....
Fact #1
Images of space captured by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite have been labelled as the first hard evidence of the proof of the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe. However, the patterns recorded were temperature gradients, which were only about 30 millionths of a degree warmer than the surrounding space - an infinitesimally minute gradient. [1]
Fact #2
The 30 millionth of a degree fluctuations in the temperature of the universe has recently had its validity challenged. A member of the team who designed the instrument that took the readings has categorically stated that it was not sensitive enough to take readings that small. [2]
Fact #3
An article in Science says that the variations claimed in the COBE project are well below the level of instrument noise, a type of background interference that would cover up such readings. It went on to say that the readings were obtained by statistical methods which still need careful checking. [3]
Fact #4
George Smoot, the man in charge of the COBE project, admitted in Science that the readings may not be real, and that even if the measurements were real, they could have been caused by other effects such as the motion of our galaxy through the background radiation. [4]
Fact #5
Two Yale scientists have stated in Scientific American that the 'bumps' in the readings of background space radiation taken by COBE have no bearing on what the structure of the universe was like billions of years ago. Their theory is that the variations in readings were caused by gravity waves
- a prediction of the Theory of General Relativity. [5]
Fact #6
An article in Nature concludes that all that can be said is that the readings are consistent with the doctrine of the Big Bang, and that it is a cause of some alarm that the media has announced that "we now know" how the universe began. [6]