Planck Satellite To Be Presented To Media
This artist's view shows the Planck satellite and a sketch of the microwave radiation being collected and focussed by the telescope's primary and secondary mirrors. The radiation is then conveyed to the focal planes of the two instruments (LFI Low Frequency Instrument and the HFI High Frequency Instrument). LFI is designed to convert the lower energy microwaves into electrical voltages, rather like a transistor radio. HFI works by converting the higher energy microwaves to heat, which is then measured by a tiny electrical thermometer. Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab |
by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Jan 17, 2007
ESA PR 04-2007. By the end of February, integration of Planck, the ESA spacecraft due to study relic radiation from the Big Bang, will have been completed - and so too will a major step towards launch. ESA and Alcatel Alenia Space (AAS) are jointly inviting the media to a press conference to be held at the AAS facilities in Cannes, France, on 1 February to hear about the mission's technological achievements and scientific objectives and to view the spacecraft in all its splendour.
Planck will make the most accurate maps yet of the microwave background radiation that fills space. It will be sensitive to temperature variations of a few millionths of a degree and will map the full sky in nine wavelengths.
The immediate outcome of the Big Bang and the initial conditions for the evolution in the universe's structure are the primary target of this important mission. From the results, a great deal more will be learnt not only about the nature and amount of dark matter, the 'missing mass' of the universe, but also about the nature of dark energy and the expansion of the universe itself.
To address such challenging objectives, Planck will need to operate at very low, stable temperatures. Once in space, its detectors will have to be cooled to temperature levels close to absolute zero (-273.15C), ranging from -253C to only a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero. The Planck spacecraft thus has to be a marvel of cryotechnology.
After integration, Planck will start a series of tests that will continue into early-2008. It will be launched by end-July 2008 in a dual-launch configuration with Herschel, ESA's mission to study the formation of galaxies, stars and planetary systems in the infrared.
Related Links
Planck overview
Herschel overview
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It
Heavy Weight Physicists To Convene For Gravity Conference
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 16, 2007
More than three dozen leading physicists and astrophysicists will convene in Tucson for the conference, "Rethinking Gravity: from the Planck scale to the size of the Universe," Jan. 22 - 24, 2007. Scientists will meet at the Tucson Marriott University Park, 880 E. Second St., to discuss their common goal -- to probe and test gravity at all scales, from the subatomic level to the entire universe. It's believed to be the first meeting on the topic to draw scientists from so many diverse research fields.
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