Planck reveals the dynamic side of the Universe
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 10:00
in Astronomy & Space
The Planck collaboration, which includes the CNRS, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the French National Space Agency (CNES) and several French universities and institutions, has today released data from four years of observation by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Planck spacecraft. The aim of the Planck mission is to study the cosmic microwave background, the light left over from the Big Bang. The measurements, taken in nine frequency bands, were used to map not only the temperature of the radiation but also its polarization, which provides additional information about both the very early Universe (when it was 380,000 years old) and our galaxy's magnetic field.