The European Space Agency's new space telescope has begun to observe the tiny changes in the cosmic background radiation, will scan the entire sky twice and provide data for decades of research
One of the newest telescopes in space, Planck, completed its "First Light" survey that began on August 13. Astronomers say the initial data collected from Planck's special location, the L2 Lagrange point, is excellent.
The Planck Space Telescope studies the cosmic microwave background radiation, looking for changes in temperature of a millionth of a degree. This can be compared to examining the body temperature of a rabbit living on the moon. The initial survey produced a map of a band in the sky, at each of the nine frequencies that Planck observes. Each map is a ring with a diameter of about 15 degrees, extending across the entire sky.
The different colors of the strip indicate the intensity of the deviation of the temperature of the cosmic background radiation from its average value, as measured by Planck at a frequency close to the peak of the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation, with the color key being as follows - the redder the area, the hotter and the blue the colder.
The large red band traces emissions from the Milky Way, while the bright spots above the galactic plane refer to the cosmic background radiation itself.
To do their job, it is necessary to cool the Planck space telescope detector as close as possible to absolute zero (–273.15°C). Routine tests are now being carried out on the telescope and the survey that will be renewed soon will be carried out for at least 15 months without a break. Six months later, the first puzzle of the entire sky will be assembled.
Within the 15-month period, Planck will collect data to complete two complete mappings of the sky. To take full advantage of Planck's high sensitivity, the data will require refinements and careful analysis. It promises to return a treasure that will keep cosmologists and astrophysicists busy for decades to come.
Translation: Avi Blizovsky
11 תגובות
"At least the goal - to make the readers smile a little, was achieved. This is the best way to learn new things."
Interesting sentence..
(The second part of the sentence says the opposite..)
Ami:
This is not your limit.
It says that only a strip 15 degrees wide was scanned.
There is still a lot to scan until they complete the picture.
Thanks Michael. I thought that what I understood was what you said, but then I said to myself that something is wrong here: if the image in visible light of our Milky Way and the other of the greenish strip is the Planck measurement - then there is a very tiny measurement of the sky here, isn't it? How wide is the Milky Way and how wide is the sky? How can we learn about temperature changes from such a picture that should give an overview of the sky if we only measured a tiny specific direction in relation to the 360 degrees around us in each direction?
I understand background radiation and understand a thermometer. What I don't understand is how the image we see teaches us about heat changes in the general background radiation (ie: what I see is a thin strip in the thickness of the Milky Way which is actually a small sliver of the background radiation)
I appreciate that I misunderstood the article and your explanation. These are my personal limitations and there is no lack of such, as the readers of science know.
Thanks for the explanation anyway.
Ami Bachar
At least the goal - to make the readers smile a little, was achieved. This is the best way to learn new things.
Is there a physiological similarity between the moon rabbits and the monster from Monty Python's Holy Grail?
And could this explain some of the craters?
Bugs:
This is true, but at the same time the claim that the body temperature of all the rabbits on the moon is 36 degrees is true.
You can also ask what the temperature of the shadow side of a rabbit on the bright side of the moon is (but, although it can be done, I won't ask).
"This is comparable to examining the body temperature of a rabbit living on the moon."
The rabbit's body temperature on the bright side of the moon is 250 degrees and its body temperature on the dark side is minus 270
Ami:
Planck measures the temperature of the background radiation reaching it from different directions with a precision that was not recognized before.
The temperature of the background radiation is supposed to reflect the non-uniformity in the early universe - a non-uniformity that caused the formation of galaxies in many suns.
The image is a composite of two images - in the background stands the image of the sky in visible light with the Milky Way in the center and on it is placed the map of the strip that Planck measured in a microwave.
For Ami Bachar, this telescope is a thermometer of the universe, scientists want to know if the universe is suffering from a disease that we don't know about.
Can someone explain in a simpler way what is written in the article above and if it has meaning then what is it?
Will be interesting!