Planck unveils wonders of the Universe

Astronomers reveal galaxy clusters and distant cold objects from space.

Adapted from a news release issued by the UK Space Agency
Monday 17 December 2010

Scientists working on Europe's Planck spacecraft have released the mission's first new findings this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, revealing the coldest objects in the Universe in greater detail than ever before.

Astronomers from Imperial College London and others from the European Space Agency have discovered massive galaxy clusters and previously unseen and unidentified objects from both our own galaxy (the Milky Way) and the most distant reaches of space.

Planck's primary goal is to take images of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the afterglow of the Big Bang. Whilst doing so, it will also provide valuable data for a broad range of studies in astrophysics.

"Planck will help us to build a ladder connecting our Milky Way to the faint, distant galaxies and uncovering the evolution of dusty, star forming galaxies throughout cosmic history," said Dr David Clements from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London and part of the Planck team.

One of Planck's major technological strengths is its ability to detect clumps of very cold gas and dust from which stars are born, and which they create when they die. The astronomers have found over 900 of these dust clumps so far. They also surveyed around 500 galaxies closer than a few billion light years and found that some of them contain much more cold dust than they previously expected.

The researchers also found evidence of previously invisible galaxies that formed new stars at rates some 10–1000 times higher than we see in the Milky Way today. Scientists had never been able to measure these galaxies in such detail before, since the images were contaminated by infrared light associated with dense, dusty regions of the Milky Way.

Data collected by Planck has also found that this mysterious, diffuse light in our own galaxy, whose origin was previously unclear, is coming from dust grains spinning at several tens of billion times a second thanks to collisions with either fast-moving atoms or photons of ultraviolet light. This new understanding is helping the scientists to remove this local microwave 'fog' from the Planck data with greater precision, leaving the important CMB data untouched and the captured images clearer.

Among the many other results presented today, Planck has also collected new data on clusters of galaxies – the largest structures in the Universe, each containing thousands of galaxies. These show up in the Planck data as compact silhouettes against the CMB. By surveying the whole sky, Planck stands the best chance of finding the most massive examples of these clusters. They are rare and their number is a sensitive probe of the kind of Universe we live in, how fast it is expanding, and how much matter it contains.

The slideshow below displays new images taken by the Planck telescope:

Planck is a flagship mission of the UK Space Agency, which funds the UK's involvement in both of Planck's scientific instruments, and the European Space Agency. It was launched in May 2009 and sits more than a million kilometres from Earth. Researchers from a number of UK institutions including Imperial were involved in the design and construction of the satellite, and are now working alongside colleagues from around the world to operate the satellite and analyse the data.

Dr David Parker, Director of Space Science and Exploration for the UK Space Agency, said, "We're proud to be playing a key role in this amazing discovery machine. These new results are all vital pieces of a jigsaw that could give us a full picture of the evolution of both our own cosmic backyard – the Milky Way galaxy that we live in – as well as the early history of the whole Universe."

For further information please contact:

Simon Levey
Research Media Officer
Imperial College London
email: s.levey@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 7594 6702
Out of hours duty press officer: +44(0)7803 886 248

Notes to editors:

1.  About Planck:

- Many of the new results are from Planck's Early Release Compact Source Catalogue. Drawn from Planck's continuing survey of the entire sky, the catalogue contains thousands of very cold, individual sources which the scientific community is now free to explore.

- ESA's Planck mission maps the sky in nine frequencies using two state-of-the-art instruments, designed to produce high-sensitivity, multi-frequency measurements of the diffuse sky r adiation: the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) includes the frequency bands 100-857 GHz, and the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) includes the frequency bands 30-70 GHz.

- The first scientific results to emerge from the mission, based on the scans gathered during Planck's first all-sky survey, between 13 August 2009 and 6 June 2010, were presented last week (10-14 January 2011) at the conference "The Millimeter and Submillimeter Sky in the Planck Mission Era" held in Paris, France.

- The Planck Scientific Collaboration consists of all the scientists who have contributed to the development of the Planck mission, and who partici pate i n the scientific exploitation of the Planck data during the proprietary period, which nominally ends with the release of the scientific products to the community 3.5 yr after launch, i.e. in January 2013. These scie ntists are members of one or more of four consortia: the LFI Consortium, the HFI Consortium, the DK-Planck Consortium, and ESA's Planck Science Office.

- A number of UK institutes and companies form part of the consortium building the two focal plane instruments, HFI (High Frequency Instrument) and LFI (Low Frequency Instrument). The Jodrell Bank Observatory at The University of Manchester has produced critical elements of the LFI receiver modules. Cardiff University played a major role in the design, manufacture and calibration of the focal plane of the High Frequency Instrument. STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and west-country space company SEA Ltd. helped build HFI, including its super-cool refrigerator. Various UK research groups including Imperial College London and University of Cambridge form the London Planck Analysis Centre and Cambridge Planck Analysis Centre. All the university groups are now involved in the operation, calibration, analysis and simulation of the Planck data. More information can be found in the Planck briefing document. UK funding for the Planck mission is supplied by the UK Space Agency.

2.   About Imperial College London

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
   
Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.

In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.

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