RELIKT 1

RELIKT-1 (sometimes RELICT-1 from Russian: РЕЛИКТ-1) - a Soviet cosmic microwave background anisotropy experiment on board the Prognoz 9 satellite (launched 1 July 1983) gave upper limits on the large-scale anisotropy. A reanalysis of the data in the later years claimed a confident blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Results have been reported in January 1992 at the All-Moscow Astronomy Seminar held at Sternberg Astronomical Institute, and published, for example, in issue 4/1992 of the "Science in USSR" journal and in Soviet Astronomy Letters in May–June 1992. Nevertheless, the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2006 was awarded to a team of American scientists, who announced the fact on April 23, 1992 based on data taken by the COBE spacecraft.

This experiment was prepared by the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and supervised by Dr. Igor Strukov.

A map of the sky at 37 GHz was built using an 8 mm band Dicke-type modulation radiometer. The radiometer could not conduct multi-band astronomical observations. The entire sky was observed in 6 months. The angular resolution was 5.5 degrees, with a temperature resolution of 0.6 mK.

The galactic microwave flux was measured and the CMB dipole observed. A quadrupole moment was found between 17 and 95 microkelvins rms, with 90% confidence level.

The heat radiation map of the Universe served as the emblem of the 1989 international conference "The Cosmic Wave Background: 25 Years Later" in L'Aquila, Italy.

The discovery of anisotropy by the RELIKT-1 spacecraft was first reported officially in January 1992 at the All-Moscow Astronomy Seminar held at Sternberg Astronomical Institute.

As a follow-up to RELIKT-1, it was decided in 1986 to study the anisotropy of CMB as part of the Relikt-2 project. The sensitivity of the equipment had greatly increased. The spacecraft was scheduled to launch in 1993-1994, but the launch never took place because of the Soviet Union's break-up and lack of funding.