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Planck Telescope Is Coolest Spacecraft Ever
Hugh Pickens writes "Launched in May, BBC reports that Europe's Planck observatory has reached its operating temperature, a staggering minus 273.05C — just a tenth of a degree above what scientists term "absolute zero." and although laboratory set-ups have got closer to absolute zero than Planck, researchers say it is unlikely there is anywhere in space currently that is colder than their astronomical satellite. This frigidity should ensure the bolometers will be at their most sensitive as they look for variations in the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) that are about a million times smaller than one degree — comparable to measuring from Earth the heat produced by a rabbit sitting on the Moon. Planck has been sent to an observation position around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2, some 1.5 million km from Earth and Planck will help provide answers to one of the most important sets of questions asked 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 objectives include mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies with improved sensitivity and angular resolution, determination of the Hubble constant, testing inflationary models of the early Universe, and measuring amplitude of structures in Cosmic Microwave Background. 'We will be probing regimes that have never been studied before where the physics is very, very uncertain,' says Planck investigator Professor George Efstathiou from Cambridge University. 'It's possible we could find a signature from before the Big Bang; or it's possible we could find the signature of another Universe and then we'd have experimental evidence that we are part of a multi-verse.'"
They call that a cool space craft? It doesn't even have warp drive, let alone quantum torpedoes. It doesn't even have anything onboard to which you could apply the phase "reverse the polarity". Cool. Bah!
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I just want to know how long the rabbit's been sitting there. I mean, is it still a living rabbit, and does it get hotter for a few seconds as it thrashes around without breath in the moon's almost nonexistent atmosphere?
Or do scientists just know how hot SPACE RABBITS get? When will the invasion come?
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The Planck telescope is the smallest telescope that, according to our current understanding of nature, it is meaningful to speak about. This property sets the Planck telescope apart as the natural unit (also called Planck unit) for telescopes.
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Space rabbits are a minimal threat. The space vixens keep their population in check.
In other news, the coldest telescope became the hottest telescope upon the discovery of two coincidental mistakes where all analog switch were labeled backwards and the purchased fuses closed on failure.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
A rabbit sitting on the moon will be at a much different temperature than its surroundings
Not for very long. How's that for pedantry?
The only thing interesting about measuring the temperature of a rabbit on the moon is resolution
Well yeah, that and the obvious question of "what the hell is a rabbit doing on the moon, and how did it get there?"
Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
Maybe its measuring the temperature of a human on earth?
I'm just disappointed they couldn't find a way to turn it into a car analogy instead of rabbits.
while (measured_age_of_the_universe != 6000)
launch a better satellite;
Is anyone else dissapointed we don't already have this capability?
I'm actually a little disappointed that this wasn't expressed in standard metric terms. I thought here on Slashdot, the agreed upon standard was something in terms of libraries of congress. Is there a conversion factor or something we can apply here?
Well yeah, that and the obvious question of "what the hell is a rabbit doing on the moon, and how did it get there?"
Obviously it should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque =)
ACK NAK RST
20 rabbits = 5 hares
I'm pretty sure what happened before the big bang is similar to what will happen after eternity.
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