The Sunyaev-Zeldovich MITO Project

Abstract

Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background radiation by electrons in the hot gas in clusters of galaxies - the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect - has long been recognized as a uniquely important feature, rich in cosmological and astrophysical information. We briefly describe the effect, and emphasize the need for detailed S-Z and X-ray measurements of nearby clusters in order to use the effect as a precise cosmological probe. This is the goal of the MITO project, whose first stage consisted of observations of the S-Z effect in the Coma cluster. We report the results of these observations.