Russians in recent years have not been awarded Nobel Prizes so often. In the third millennium, the highest awards of the scientific world were awarded to them only three times - in 2000, 2003 and 2010. And that's all - in physics.
Slightly more often, prizes are awarded to scientists with "Russian roots". And each such time, as a rule, is accompanied by angry exclamations - they say, they did not save. But it is much more unpleasant when awards are given to foreigners for discoveries made by our scientists.
This happened in 2006, when the Americans John Mather and George Smoot received the Nobel Prize in Physics. They were honored for their research on the "black body shape and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation." Simply put, for the study of the inhomogeneity of the thermal radiation distributed throughout the Universe, the so-called relic radiation. It is assumed that it is a residual glow from the Big Bang, therefore, thanks to its analysis, scientists hope to obtain information about the first moments of our world.
Radiation instead of communications
The existence of relic radiation was first suggested by Georgiy Gamov, who in 1948, together with Ralph Alferov and Robert Herman, put forward the theory of the hot Big Bang. Almost two decades later - in 1965 - his hypothesis was confirmed in practice. And, of course, it was not without accident.
In the early 1960s, researchers at Princeton University in America created a radiometer to measure the CMB. It was on the principle of this device that the employees of Bell Laboratories - a large research center in the field of telecommunications - Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias created their device. True, they were going to use it for experiments in a field completely far from the origins of the Universe - radio astronomy and satellite communications. But when calibrating the device, it turned out that the antenna has an inexplicable noise temperature (caused by radiation from the environment and has nothing to do with physical temperature in its usual sense).
After a meeting with colleagues from Princeton, researchers at Bell Laboratories realized that the recorded temperature was caused by the microwave background radiation. For their discovery, scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.
Promotional video:
However, deservedly or not - the question is also debatable. Back in the 1950s, the Soviet astronomer Tigran Shmaonov, during antenna tests, discovered relict radiation in the radio range. However, he did not attach any importance to this and published the results of his work in the non-core journal "Instruments and Technology", which is why his discovery went unnoticed.
First time
The next chronologically stage in the study of relic radiation will be the study of its inhomogeneities. The first experiment to measure radiation from a spacecraft will receive the uncomplicated name "Relikt-1". It was conducted in 1983 by Soviet scientists led by Igor Strukov.
As part of the experiment, they used an orbiting radio telescope, which was placed on the Russian satellite Prognoz-9. In this case, measurements were carried out only at one frequency.
A little later, in 1989, the American space observatory COBE went into orbit. Its task was also to study the relict background of the Universe. The most important components of the stations were three instruments: DMR, DIBRE and FIRAS. Their spectral ranges were different, which made it possible to separate radiation sources: the distant Universe, the Galaxy and the Solar system.
It took years to process the results obtained: Soviet scientists almost a decade, American scientists three years. In 1992, both of them reported on the discovery of anisotropy, that is, the inhomogeneity of the relic radiation.
The first results of the work were presented by the "Relikt" group: the presentation was made at the Moscow Astronomical Seminar in January, an article about the experiment was published in May in the Soviet journal Letters to Astronomical Journal and its English version, and in September - in the English scientific journal Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society.
American scientists presented their results in April. With great fanfare, four huge articles were sent to print at the same time. More than ten years later, in 2006, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the CMB anisotropy.
Half-truth in discontent
At first glance, the promptness of the publication and broader coverage of the discovery played into the hands of Mather and Troubles - otherwise, according to seeming justice, Strukov and other scientists should have received the award. However, if you look at it, then in this judgment there is only a grain of truth.
In the decision of the Nobel Committee on awarding the Americans, it is said that the prize was awarded not only to the anisotropy, but also to the blackness of cosmic microwave radiation. The discovery of the blackness of the relic is entirely the merit of the Americans. It was found thanks to the FIRAS device, for which John Mather was responsible.
In fact, it was the results of his work that confirmed the validity of the Big Bang theory. And what is important - they were presented back in January 1990 at the annual conference of the American Astronomical Society held in Washington. At the same time, in a solemn atmosphere, a letter with an article was dropped into the mailbox, which was sent to the Astrophysical journal.
Due to the limitedness of their own capabilities, Soviet scientists, in principle, did not pretend to study blackness. Therefore, in part, all calls for more justice from the Nobel Committee are groundless. But on the other hand, with regard to anisotropy, the Russian side can make fair claims. And George Smoot, who was responsible for the DMR apparatus, who was responsible for her research, could have been more honest, if only in his speech at the awards ceremony he paid tribute to the Strukov group.
Ivan Roschepiy