Jabarkan Pengllibatan dalam COBE dari George F. Smoot dalam bahasa melayu

At that time, the CMB appeared to be perfectly uniform excluding the distortion caused by the Doppler effect as mentioned above. This result contradicted with observations of the universe, with various structures (galaxies, galaxy clusters, etc.), indicating that the universe was relatively inhomogenous on a small scale. However, these structures formed slowly. Thus, if the universe is inhomogenous today, it would be inhomogenous at the time of the emission of the CMB as well, observable today through weak variations in the temperature of the CMB. It was the detection of these anisotropies that Smoot was working on in the late 1970s. He then proposed to NASA a project involving a satellite equipped with a detector that was similar to the one mounted on the U-2, but was more sensitive and not influenced by air pollution. The proposal was accepted and gave rise to the satellite COBE, and cost US$ 160 million. COBE was launched on November 18, 1989, after a delay owing to the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger. After more than two years of observation and analysis, the team of COBE, led by Smoot, announced on 23 April 1992 to have detected negligible fluctuations in the CMB, a breakthrough in the scientific world.

The success of COBE was the outcome of prodigious team work involving more than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other participants. John Mather coordinated the entire process and also had primary responsibility for the experiment that revealed the blackbody form of the CMB measured by COBE. George Smoot had main responsibility for measuring the small variations in the temperature of the radiation.

Smoot collaborated with San Francisco Chronicle journalist Keay Davidson to write the general-audience book Wrinkles in Time , first published in 1994, that chronicled his team's efforts.