A 900-million-dollar orbital observatory has completed the biggest-ever search for remnants of the "Big Bang" that created the Universe, the European Space Agency said on Monday.
The main instrument on the Planck observatory failed on Saturday when -- as expected -- it ran out of coolant, ending a mission that had lasted twice its 15-month operational design, ESA said in a press release.
"Planck has been a wonderful mission; spacecraft and instruments have been performing outstandingly well, creating a treasure trove of scientific data for us to work with," Jan Tauber, the agency's chief scientist for the Planck project, said.
Planck is designed to pick up tiny variations in temperature in microwave energy that was released after the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago.
Buried in this backwash of energy, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), are telltales of how the Universe was formed, hundreds of millions of years before the first stars and galaxies.
Mission controllers had hoped for two complete surveys of the sky, and in the end Planck delivered five, ESA said proudly.
The observatory's other sensor, which looks at slightly lower CMB temperatures, should be able to operate for much of 2012, helping to calibrate data obtained from these five sweeps of the sky.
Early next year, scientists hope to release data culled from the first 15 months of observation. In 2014, all the mission's data will be available.
It will then fall to astophysicists to pore over the numbers. The outcome could determine the future of the many competing theories about what happened during the Big Bang.
"Planck's data will kill off whole families of models -- we just don't know which ones yet," said Jean-Loup Puget of France's University of Southern Paris.
Launched in May 2009, the mission, named after German 20th-century quantum physicist Max Planck, cost around 700 million euros (882 million dollars).
Explore further:
ESA's Planck satellite builds on Nobel-prize-winning science
Henrik
1.2 / 5 (31) Jan 16, 2012josetphy
4.6 / 5 (13) Jan 16, 2012Yess... The issue is that, in no part of the article it's stated "observing the Big Bang"; instead, "...the remnants of the Big Bang..." and, more concisely, the CMB radiation, which is the surface of last scattering.
It's often easy to spot major errors in articles like this one; this is not the case, though.
RealScience
4.6 / 5 (7) Jan 16, 2012Are you claiming that your god "faked" the big bang by starting the light from distant galaxies in mid course?
That would be the work of a trickster!
Why don't you either just realize that scientists are studying what you call god's handiwork, or get off this science forum and go hang out on a religion forum.
El_Nose
1 / 5 (3) Jan 17, 2012Look troll notice that the guy with science in his name brought God into the discussion ---
Stop being offensive to be offensive
Ethelred
3.7 / 5 (6) Jan 17, 2012Ethelred
kaasinees
0.4 / 5 (27) Jan 17, 2012you people must be jewish.
Jorsher
5 / 5 (2) Jan 17, 2012Before being so quick to throw out some sarcasm...
Ethelred
4 / 5 (4) Jan 17, 2012I said exactly what I meant. He is a Creationist. Look at his other posts. You are arguing from ignorance. Much like Henrik.
Ethelred
kaasinees
0.2 / 5 (26) Jan 18, 2012I got you there, i am now positive that you are jewish.
For your information jewish is not a race, only jewish people play the race card. Also i am not racist most of the girls i dated were interracial.
I don't care if Henrik is a creationist or not, he was kind enough to not bring God or that non-sense into the discussion. Attacking his stupid personal beliefs just because he doesnt believe in the big bang religion.
Ethelred
3.7 / 5 (3) Jan 18, 2012Pigshit you bigot. YOU played the race card.
Jews are an ethnic group. A gene pool or rather set of them.
My nephew is who cares who you dated? You are still an asshole bigot.
He didn't use the word. He brought in his god anyway.
No. He doesn't believe in stars being more 6000 light years away either. Because of his religion. The BB is not a religion and the CMBR does not require the BB. Neither do I. It just fits the evidence.
I can't help it if your crank AND and asshole. Never met a bigot that wasn't.
Ethelred
kaasinees
0.2 / 5 (25) Jan 18, 2012http://translate....p;anno=2
http://translate....p;anno=2
http://en.wikiped...in_China
Ethnic group: debunked.
Evil culture: confirmed.
Agnostic/Atheist compatability: confirmed.
Keep playing that race card you jew.
Ethelred
3.7 / 5 (3) Jan 19, 2012Like I said bigot. They are an ethnic group.
Bullshit.
Lying bigot.
All cultures have Agnostics. Except hate based ones.
You are the doing that. I am not and never was Jewish but there certainly would not be anything wrong if I had been. Perhaps you are the Ethelred on Stormfront that is so proud of being a racist.
It is nice to know just what kind of person you have chosen to be. A hate filled lying nutcase. I will keep this thread on my favorites as a example of just what you are.
Do keep being the bigot. That will be on less crank on the site. One less idiot.
Ethelred Hardrede
Hardrede could have been one of my ancestors