Planck is a space telescope that is mapping the entire sky, and is particularly looking at the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Currently, more than 98 percent of the sky had been observed, with 100% expected to be achieved by May 2010. You can see an animation video of Planck scanning the sky on YouTube. Planck is run by the European Space Agency, with some support from NASA. Obviously it is named in honor of the German scientist Max Planck, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.
While Planck is looking at the CMB, it also looking into star formation and galactic structure. Today, the Planck team has release an image showing cold dust structures in our Milky Way Galaxy. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image, or click through the link below for more images from Planck.
This image covers a portion of the sky about 50 degrees in total extent. It is a three-color combination constructed from Planck’s two highest frequency channels (557 and 857 Gigahertz, corresponding to wavelengths of 540 and 350 micrometers) and an image obtained at 100 micrometers with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). This combination effectively traces the dust: reddish tones correspond to temperatures as cold as 12 degrees above absolute zero, and whitish tones to significantly warmer ones (on order a few tens of degrees) in regions where massive stars are currently forming. Overall, the image shows local dust structures within 500 light-years of the sun.
