The Planck Mission

by Reno Mandolesi (INAF IASF Bologna)

Thursday 24 Sept 2009, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Zurich

Main Auditorium ** (CERN)

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, launched the 14th of May 2009, is the next-generation space experiment in the field of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) research. It will image the anisotropies of the CMB over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to many fundamental cosmological problems and will test current theories of the early evolution of the universe and the origin of structure. It will also address a wide range of areas of astrophysical research related to the our Galaxy as well as external galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The ability of Planck to measure polarization across a wide frequency range (30-350 GHz), with high precision and accuracy, and over the whole sky, will provide unique insight not only into specific cosmological questions, but also into the properties of the interstellar medium. This paper is part of a larger package which describes the technical capabilities of the Planck scientific payload. It is based on the knowledge gathered during the on-ground calibration campaigns of the major subsystems, principally its telescope and its two scientific instruments; and of tests at fully integrated satellite level. It represents the best estimate of the performance that the satellite will achieve in flight. In this Colloquium, the main elements of the payload performance, as well as the satellite performance elements which are most relevant for science will be described. In addition the results of the First Light Survey will be outlined.

Poster CERNColloquium24092009.pdf

Video in CDS Video in CDS