Tufts/CfA/MIT Cosmology Seminar, at CfA:

Gary Hinshaw, Goddard Space Flight Center 

Title: The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP): A Mission to Map CMB Anisotropy

Abstract: The Microwave Anisotropy Probe was recently selected by NASA
to be one of the first Midex class missions to launch in ~2000.  MAP
will measure the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
radiation with high sensitivity over the full sky with ~0.3 degree
angular resolution.  This data should allow cosmologists to infer a
tremendous amount about the physics of the early universe, including
the mechanism of structure formation.  The data should, in turn,
constrain many fundamental cosmological parameters.  I will present an
overview of the physics of CMB anisotropy and MAP's strategy for
measuring it.  Information about MAP is available on the World Wide Web
at href=http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/.