Survey of the Early Universe Finally Completed

Officials at the European Space Agency (ESA) say that the first all-sky survey scheduled to be carried out by the High Frequency Instrument (HFI), aboard the ESA Planck spacecraft, has just been completed. The study finally reveals a map of the residual one left behind by the Big Bang.

The representatives also said that the spacecraft ran out of its vital coolant this Saturday, January 14, as scheduled. This means that it will be unable to detect this faint light any longer. The HFI instrument conducted its investigation in microwave wavelengths, analyzing the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Using HFI and the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI), Planck has been studying patterns in the CMB since mid-2009. According to astronomers around the world, this is the most advanced mission destined to study this aspect of the Universe ever developed.

Remarkably, Planck worked for twice as long as originally planned, meaning that it conducted 5 full-sky surveys, rather than just two and a half. “This gives us even better data than we were expecting from the mission,” HFI principal investigator and Université Paris Sud expert Jean-Loup Puget says.