The Cosmic Microwave Background

A few minutes after its creation, the universe had a temperature of billions of degrees. Since then, it has gradually cooled to the point where its temperature is now just a few degrees above absolute zero (-273 degrees C). Since this faint glow was first discovered in 1965 as the so-called Microwave Background Radiation, it has played a crucial role in our understanding of the universe. The very existence of this radiation is firm evidence for the Big Bang theory of the expanding universe.

Since then, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite has discovered 'ripples' in the temperature of the universe. These represent small variations in the density of the material in the early universe, and help to explain how matter clumped together to form stars and galaxies.

Planck

This European Space Agency (ESA) mission, currently scheduled to fly in about 2005, is a major follow-up to the COBE mission. By using detectors cooled to within a tenth of a degree of absolute zero, Planck will map the entire microwave background sky with unprecedented detail. Its two instruments will operate simultaneously at nine frequencies, with a sensitivity of two parts in a million, and an angular resolution of a few arcminutes (compared with COBE's 7 degree-wide view).

Planck's design gives it the capability of measuring many of the characteristics of the universe -- its geometry, its contents and its ultimate fate -- to a high degree of accuracy for the first time. By using Planck to look at the fine detail in the temperature pattern of the sky, cosmologists should be able to test models for the origin and structure of the universe. For example, how fast the universe is expanding; whether it will eventually halt its expansion; the nature and quantity of dark matter, which appears to be the dominant constituent in the universe; and the nature of the initial irregularities -- did structure develop from small quantum fluctuations, or from a more exotic origin?

"It is tremendously exciting that this experiment should answer not just one, but practically all of the major questions of cosmology in one go," said Alan Heavens. In addition to this primary aim, the decoding of Planck's microwave sky maps will also produce a catalogue of more than 10,000 clusters of galaxies, and tens of thousands of quasars, starburst galaxies and other unusual objects. The clusters will be detected by the effect their hot gas has on the microwave radiation as it passes through them.

The UK and Planck

The UK's involvement is both in hardware and in the formidable data analysis task. The following centres are involved in the High Frequency Instrument:

Planck mission

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