The Planck spacecraft has obtained its first peek at the afterglow of the big bang, revealing it in unprecedented detail.
The Planck team has released the probe’s first image, an observational strip (above) covering about five per cent of the sky. Its first map of the entire sky is set to be complete in about six months.
The European Space Agency spacecraft was launched into space on 14 May. It is observing the glow of hot gas from just 380,000 years after the big bang – about 13.73 billion years ago – called the cosmic microwave background.
The detailed properties of this background may contain hints of hidden extra dimensions or multiple universes, as well as providing clues to what caused a brief, early period of incredibly rapid cosmic expansion.
Planck began surveying the microwave background on Aug. 13, a few weeks after reaching its planned perch 1.5 million kilometres from Earth at a point called L2 and cooling its detectors to within 0.1 °C above absolute zero.
Although Planck was only designed to observe the sky for 15 months, the team believes it could last for more than 30 months, based on new estimates of how long its coolant will last. The extra time will allow Planck to measure the radiation with even greater precision, since it will scan the entire sky four times – two more than originally planned.
SOURCE: New Scientist
Posted on September 25th, 2009 at 2:30 pm by Lin McNulty
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