images

Planck satellite. Artwork

by

ESA/Medialab/Novapix

Reference

e-sou12-10002

Date

2007-02-01

Image shows telescope at the top containing two mirrors encased by a shield. The thicker base is the service module. Planck is the first european mission to study the relic radiation from the Big Bang. Ever since the detection of small fluctuations in the temperature of this radiation, called Cosmic Microwave Background, astronomers have used the fluctuations to understand both the origin of the Universe and the formation of galaxies.