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The most important space science mission for the European Space Agency and for Ariane is in the last phase of preparation for launch. Due to lift off soon from French Guiana, the flight will be orbiting two observatories, Herschel and Planck. Planck will be the first European space observatory whose main goal is the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background the relic radiation from the Big Bang. The spacecraft will measure the fluctuations of the CMB with an infinitely precise accuracy. It will be offering a journey back to the dawn of time.

Planck will help provide answers to some of the most important questions in modern science: how did the Universe begin, how did it evolve to the state we observe today, and how will it continue to evolve in the future? Planck’s objective is to analyse, with the highest accuracy ever achieved, the remnants of the radiation that filled the Universe immediately after the Big Bang – this we observe today as the Cosmic Microwave Background.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/index.html

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=17

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Planck was selected as the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA’s Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme, and is today part of its Cosmic Vision Programme. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Background Radiation Field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early universe and the origin of cosmic structure. The scientific development of the mission is directed by the Planck Science Team.

Planck was formerly called COBRAS/SAMBA. After the mission was selected and approved (in late 1996), it was renamed in honor of the German scientist Max Planck (1858-1947), Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.

Planck was launched on 14 May 2009 together with the Herschel satellite. After launch, Planck and Herschel separated and are now proceeding to different orbits around the second Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun System. Latest news are available via the menu at left.

http://www.sciops.esa.int/index.php?project=PLANCK

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