The European Space Agency has released new images captured by the Planck space observatory. The Planck observatory collects information at microwave wavelengths, allowing it to effectively see through dust clouds which appear black at visible wavelengths.
This artist's impression shows the Planck satellite and a sketch of the microwave radiation being collected and focused by the telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors. The radiation is then directed 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. Image credit: ESA (Image by AOES Medialab)
The mission is named after the German physicist Max Planck, whose work on the behaviour of radiation won the Nobel Prize in 1918.
The Planck space observatory has been placed in space to study the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) created when the universe was formed in the Big Bang about 14 thousand million years ago.
Planck image of a region in the Orion Nebula Image credit ESA
Text adapted from information collected from here and here.
