Editing BOOMERanG experiment (section)

{{Short description|High-altitude balloon package measuring the universe's geometry}}
{{Infobox telescope}}
{{Cosmology|experiments}}
'''BOOMERanG experiment''' ('''Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation And Geophysics''') was an experiment that flew a telescope on a [[high-altitude balloon|(high-altitude) balloon]] and measured the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] of a part of the sky during three sub-orbital flights. It was the first experiment to make large, high-fidelity images of the CMB temperature anisotropies, and is best known for the discovery in 2000 that the geometry of the universe is close to flat,<ref name="Nature_27Apr00">{{cite journal|last1=de Bernardis|first1=P.|display-authors=etal|journal=Nature|date=27 April 2000|volume=404|issue=6781|pages=955–959|doi=10.1038/35010035|arxiv=astro-ph/0004404 | title=A Flat Universe from High-Resolution Maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation|pmid=10801117|bibcode = 2000Natur.404..955D |s2cid=4412370}}</ref> with similar results from the competing [[Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array|MAXIMA]] experiment.

By using a telescope which flew at over 42,000 meters high, it was possible to reduce the atmospheric absorption of microwaves to a minimum. This allowed massive cost reduction compared to a satellite probe, though only a tiny part of the sky could be scanned.

The first was a test flight over [[North America]] in 1997. In the two subsequent flights in 1998 and 2003 the balloon was launched from [[McMurdo Station]] in the Antarctic. It was carried by the [[Polar vortex]] winds in a circle around the [[South Pole]], returning after two weeks. From this phenomenon the telescope took its name.

The BOOMERanG team was led by [[Andrew E. Lange]] of [[Caltech]] and Paolo de Bernardis of the [[University of Rome La Sapienza]].<ref name="NYT_27Apr00">{{cite news |last=Glanz |first=James |date=27 April 2000 |title=Clearest Picture of Infant Universe Sees It All and Questions It, Too |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/27/us/clearest-picture-of-infant-universe-sees-it-all-and-questions-it-too.html?pagewanted=1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2010-02-23}}</ref>