Planck First Light

Strips of the sky measured by Planck. Credit: ESA

One of the newest telescopes in space, the Planck spacecraft, recently completed its "first light" survey which began on August 13. Astronomers say the initial data, gathered from Planck's vantage point at the L2 point in space, is excellent. Planck is studying the Cosmic Microwave Background, looking for variations in temperature that are about a million times smaller than one degree. This is comparable to measuring from Earth the body heat of a rabbit sitting on the Moon.
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