First Full-Sky Image From Planck Mission

krou writes "Six months of work has produced a remarkable full-sky map from Planck. 'It shows what is visible beyond the Earth to instruments that are sensitive to light at very long wavelengths — much longer than what we can sense with our eyes. Researchers say it is a remarkable dataset that will help them understand better how the Universe came to look the way it does now. ... Of particular note are the huge streamers of cold dust that reach thousands of light-years above and below the galactic plane. "What you see is the structure of our galaxy in gas and dust, which tells us an awful lot about what is going on in the neighborhood of the Sun; and it tells us a lot about the way galaxies form when we compare this to other galaxies," observed Professor Andrew Jaffe, a Planck team member from Imperial College London, UK.' The ESA has more details on their website, with a higher-res JPG available."

Comments

At the risk of hurting someone

[cpscotti]

"understand better how the Universe came to look the way it does now"
Am I the only one sick of this kind of justifications? Since the first man pointed the first telescope upwards, we use this "to understand better how our home (universe/galaxy) is".
Or to better understand the origins of the universe...

Anyway, all this justifications are true and well intentioned but.. well.. it sounds almost lame to read them all the time.
And yet, it is better than blaming it on "the children".

Thanks ESA & Plank Team!