Planck
Overview
One portion of the Planck cosmic microwave background radiation image. This is a mapping of temperature in the microwave sky where red areas are slightly warmer and blue spots are slightly cooler. The overall temperature of this light is 2.7 Kelvin, and the differences are in the one hundred thousandth of a degree.
Note
See this section’s top page for an introduction on the cosmic microwave background.
In 2009, the European Space Agency launched the Planck satellite into space. Its first all-sky map of the CMB was released in 2013 and greatly improved upon WMAP’s results. The mission was named after Max Planck (1858–1947), who derived the equation for a blackbody (an object that absorbs light completely).
The Planck mission observed the sky in nine wavelengths to better constrain the foreground light (WMAP observed in five wavelengths). The resulting map is more precise than WMAP and will be more accurate in subtracting the foreground light from the Milky Way Galaxy.
The red areas represent the slightly hotter temperatures, and the blue areas are slightly cooler. Of course, the overall temperature of the light is 2.7 Kelvin, but the subtle differences in temperature in this map reveal to us the origin, evolution, and nature of the universe. Planck has determined the universe to be 13.799±0.021 billion years old.
Profiles
Dossier
Census: |
1 all-sky image |
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Asset File: |
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OpenSpace Version: |
2 |
Reference: |
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Prepared by: |
Brian Abbott (AMNH) |
Source Version: |
2.03 |
License: |