End of mission for HFI, high frequency instrument of Planck satellite

After 30 months of examplary functioning, the high frequency instrument of the European Space Agency's satellite Planck, is switched off. During nearly 1000 days, its detectors have been the coldest objects of the extraterrestrial Universe, with a final life duration two times longer than schedulled. Planck mission sees a very high participation of French laboratories from CNRS and CEA, supported by CNES.

Read the entire Press Release (in French).

Planck special feature in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Planck early results papers, which were submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics in early January 2011, are now available in a special feature of Astronomy & Astrophysics Vol. 536, December 2011.

Planck Early Results Papers

These papers, which have been submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics in early January 2011, are produced by the Planck Collaboration, and are based on data acquired by Planck between 13 August 2009 and 6 June 2010. This set of papers describes the scientific performance of the Planck payload, and presents results on a variety of astrophysical topics related to the sources included in the ERCSC, as well as selected topics on difuse emission. The papers are available from the arXiv server astro-ph from arXiv:1101.2022 to arXiv:1101.2048.

All the papers...

Meeting "Planck, a window on the Universe", On Saturday 15 Jaunuary from 15 h to 18 h, at the "Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie"

PLANCK satellite delivers its first scientific results

The scientific community waited for 18 months for the data collected by Planck, the European Space Agency's satellite. The first scientific results are available. The first edition of the catalogue of compact sources (ERCSC, Early Release Compact Sources Catalogue) has been published and presented on January 11, with several thousand of sources detected by Planck.

This image illustrates the position in the sky of all thecompact sources, galactic and extragalactic, detected by Planck (ERCSC, Early Release Compact Sources Catalogue) - Credit: ESA/ Planck Collaboration

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Other ESA's news about Planck results

Planck 2011 conference: "The millimeter and submillimeter sky in the Planck mission era", in Paris, "Cité des Sciences", 10-14 January 2011.

ESA's Science Programme Committee approuved the new extension of PLANCK mission operations until December 31 2014, subjected to a mid-term review in 2012.

First publications presenting the pre-launch status of the Planck mission in the review Astronomy and Astrophysics - Vol. 520 (September-October 2010)

Planck's first glimpse at galaxy clusters and a new super-cluster

This image shows the newly discovered supercluster of galaxies detected by Planck with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect.

This image taken by XMM-Newton in X-ray emission, confirms the newly discovered supercluster of galaxies detected by Planck.

Surveying the microwave sky, Planck has obtained its very first images of galaxy clusters, amongst the largest objects in the Universe, by means of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, a characteristic signature they imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background. Joining forces in a fruitful collaboration between ESA missions, XMM-Newton followed up Planck's detections and revealed that one of them is a previously unknown supercluster of galaxies...

Read the news on the ESA website

Planck satellite seen from the Earth - Credit: Alain Klotz, CESR - Pictures taken by an automated telescope in Australia.

Planck all-sky image depicts galactic mist over the cosmic background

The first complete sky by Planck satellite
Credits: ESA/ LFI & HFI Consortia

An all-sky image from Planck's recently completed first survey highlights the two major emission sources in the microwave sky: the cosmic background and the Milky Way. The relic radiation coming from the very early Universe is, to a large extent, masked by intervening astronomical sources, in particular by our own Galaxy's diffuse emission. Thanks to Planck's nine frequency channels, and to sophisticated image analysis techniques, it is possible to separate these two contributions into distinct scientific products that are of immense value for cosmologists and astrophysicists, alike.

Read an article on CNES' blog (in French)
Read the news on the ESA website

New Planck images highlights the complexity of star formation

The new images from Planck satellite show the interstellar medium, stars, gas and dust clouds conglomeration under differents angles, and reveals new aspects of our galaxy.
The results obtained by Planck mission will enable among other things to understand the formation stars in the Milky Way as well as in other galaxies of the Universe. Planck will thus enable to go back to the Universe infancy, by giving us a quickview of what it was 380 000 ans after the Big Bang, after examination under 9 observation frequencies.
Planck data will be available for the international scientific community by the end of 2012.

The region of sky covered by the Planck images is shown on a view of half the sky as seen in visible and infrared light. The smaller patch corresponds to Orion and the larger to Perseus.
Credit: ESA/LFI & HFI Consortia/STScI DSS

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New Planck images trace cold dust and reveal large-scale structure in the Milky Way

New images from ESA's Planck mission reveal details of the structure of the coldest regions in our Galaxy. Filamentary clouds predominate, connecting the largest to the smallest scales in the Milky Way. These images are a scientific by-product of a mission which will ultimately provide the sharpest picture ever of the early Universe.

The Planck image, covering a portion of the sky about 55°, was obtained by the High Frequency Instrument at a frequency of 857 GHz. The dark horizontal band is the plane of our Galaxy, seen in cross-section from our vantage point. The colours represent the intensity of heat radiation by dust.
Credit: ESA and the HFI Consortium, Axel Mellinger

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After the satisfying conclusion of the "first light" survey, Planck is declared "fit for duty", which implies that the full sky mapping has already begun.

A map of the whole sky at optical wavelengths shows a prominent horizontal band which is the light shining from our own Milky Way, seen in profile from our vantage point. The superposed false-color strip shows the area of the sky mapped by Planck during the First Light Survey. The color scale indicates the magnitude of the deviations of the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background from its average value, as measured by Planck at a frequency close to the peak of the CMB spectrum (red is hotter and blue is colder). The large red strips trace radio emission from the Milky Way, whereas the small bright spots high above the galactic plane correspond to emission from the Cosmic Microwave Background itself.
[Figure credits: LFI & HFI Consortia (Planck), Axel Mellinger (optical)]

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After the successful satellite commissioning phase in July, and the completion of the FLS (First Light Survey) in August, Planck is now beginning the first survey of the whole sky. Planck should now observe in routine mode for an uninterrupted period of at least 15 months.

The programme entered the Calibration and Performance Verification phase (CPV Phase) for the payload instruments. It includes the pointing capabilities, the satellite sensors calibration , the determination of the instruments performances in every modes, and the initial calibration of the payload instruments. At the end of this phase (end of July) should begin the First Light Survey (FLS) until August 12, first survey of the mission.

Depending on the FLS results, some parameters could still evolve. The PLANCK routine mission could then begin and the FLS could in fact be the begining of the routine mission if nothing has been changed after the FLS.

  
HFI Instrument new cooling figures and distance between Planck and the Earth

Planck, the coolest spacecraft ever in orbit around L2

Last night, the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument reached their amazingly low operational temperature of -273.05°C, making them the coldest known objects in space. The spacecraft has also just entered its final orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2.

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Planck satellite manoeuvre aims at L2 arrival. Planck, is still in cooling phase for the instruments with the first acquisitions planned in July (see figures for the temperature and the position).

  
HFI Instrument cooling figures and distance between Planck and the Earth

Nobel Prize for physics to Cosmology
The 2006 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Americans John C. Mather et George F. Smoot for their work on NASA's COsmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite launched in 1989. (more information)