The scientific journal Nature has listed Planck as one of its key events of 2010. The folks at Nature are as excited as we are about the first images from Planck and can’t wait for more – though the full results will come a couple of years later. As ever, watch this space! In April, Planck will mark …
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Is it a bird, is it a plane…no it’s the Planck satellite
The Planck satellite is not only being monitored by the mission controllers at the Mission Operations Centre. It is also being watched by optical astronomers, who have captured images of the satellite against the starry background. There are two methods of doing this, one is to stare at the area of sky which the spacecraft …
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First Light Survey
Basic Information What is this? A strip of sky observed during Planck’s first light survey, superimposed on a view of the sky at visible wavelengths Where is it in the sky? The strip runs around the ring of the sky which Planck was observing during its first light survey How big is it? In the …
Royal Society Exhibition Photos
At the start of July, around 40 members of the Herschel and Planck teams represented these missions to the public at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. It was great to attend at explain what we’re doing and why we do it to interested people. A lot of planning goes into such exhibits, and it …
Planck and Herschel win Grand Prize
The teams behind Planck and Herschel have been awarded the “Grand Prix 2010” by the French Association for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAAF), to acknowledge their “outstanding space endeavours”. The prize was awarded on 9th June 2010 in Paris, and senior members of the teams behind both of these groundbreaking missions were there to collect the award on behalf of …
Launch Party video
A video of the launch party held at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy can be seen below. It includes discussion about the Herschel and Planck missions and what the scientists hope to discover, as well as their reactions to such a successful launch.
Planck talk at Launch Party
Professor Phil Mauskopf, of Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, gave the talk below at the launch party held at the University.
Successful Launch!
Planck launched successfully at 13:12 GMT on 14th May 2009 from the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The ESA website has a video of the launch. Many members of the Planck team attended the launch – look out for photos on this site!
One week to go!
With just one week to go, preparations for launch are well advanced. The press coverage is also starting to build up for Planck (e.g. another Newscientist article), bringing it to the fore alongside its heavyweight sister-mission Herschel. Over in Kourou, Planck is inside the Ariane 5 faring, see below with the “SYLDA” (a French acronym for Système …
Planck in the News
A recent press conference in London, hosted by STFC, generated several articles in UK newspapers, many of which can be viewed online: The Independent The Daily Mail The Times The Daily Telegraph There’s also an article in NewScientist.