Planck telescope maps the universe in search of primordial light
Yep, that innocuous-looking picture above is the whole freaking universe, as perceived by the Planck telescope -- a long-wave light detector that's been catapulted into space to search for Big Bang clues. The European Space Agency is using it in order to get the most precise information to date on Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (apparent in the image as the magenta and yellow mush in the, ahem, background), which could in turn enlighten us on the conditions that gave rise to all of us omnivores prowling a gravity-assisted, ozone-protected, floating rock. The first mapping run took just over six months to complete, but the plan is to produce four such images using the Planck's super-cold (nearly at absolute zero) sensors before retiring the thing. Results are expected no sooner than 2013, so please do slide back from the edge of your seat.























Hmm.... that is literally a map of everything...
@Locust
we need a 'You are here' arrow like they have from Mall directories across the universe.
@tricheboars
Aww man, the food court is 200 million miles away.
@Locust
Just the temperature of everything.
And only if you count everything as lacking all the stars and planets and dust in the galaxy.
@Salmoncannon
Whoops, I mean universe as well, not just galaxy.
@Locust less everything and more the light in our own universe. it is a widely accepted theory there are multiverses. sooo not quite everything.
@Timerider
The term ur looking for is Light years
@Locust nah.. this in not "everything".
use Google to see "everything"
@Locust
I feel so small!
Well this makes me feel really small.
Maybe I should pay more attention to all that spam I've been getting...
What's that black on the corners ? :(
@moodmuzik
hell...nah i think it's a 360 photo so it's rounded or something?
@moodmuzik
the squashed circle is a the entire 3D plane of the sky projected onto a 2D surface - same way the 3D surface of the Earth can be projected onto a flat 2D map that has the same shape.
@moodmuzik The black corners are where the Reapers live
@moodmuzik
Fog of war?
@Locust
+1
@moodmuzik
"What's that black on the corners ? :("
Interestingly, this question is paramount to the argument against the theory of the Big Bang and thus a perceivable shape and size of the universe. WTF is beyond the borders of the universe? And whatever is beyond, how far does it extend? Science rejects the possibility of an infinite universe because the concept of "infinity" is the bane of all mathematicians and physicists. It is just as ridiculous to think that the universe has a finite size as it is to think it is infinite.
@Locust
Also inhabitants are the Tyranids
@moodmuzik tricky question.
I think I just saw "ESA, HFI AND LFI CONSORTIA"
probably stars that formed as letters
@GeneralThade It is generally accepted that the universe is not infinitely large AND infinitely old simultaneously, which was the conceptualization before the Big Bang Theory was developed. Basically the thought experiment is that if the universe was infinitely old and large then the light from distant stars would make the night sky nearly as bright as it is during the day, because looking off at any point in the sky you would eventually run into a star. Dust might occlude some of the star light, by reflecting it back, but in general it would also reflect from stars on 'our side' and thus net out to the same thing.
@Locust
*reavers
I thought God, Jesus and George Bush made the universe, You mean I've been lied to all my life???
@vmod32 Well, yeah, but only a little bit. Jesus didn't have anything to do with it :)
@Locust
Only Jesus is left out? Sounds like someone is a Florida Jew...
@vmod32 God made it, Jesus told us about it and Bush Jr. failed at destroying it.
@vmod32 wrong again!
Helmut Bakaitis made the universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architect_(The_Matrix)
If you look very closely over near the bottom right corner, you can see my house.
@gloster
So, if there's a bright center in the universe you're on the pixel that it's farthest from?
@gloster I see letters?
So if you fold the map, and then poke a hole...
@DooMskis
You get a black hole! smaaaaart...
not a black hole, a wormhole
Hey I can see my house from here!!!
@Guimo Actually, you can see everything EXCEPT your house. Just like the google streetview shots have no streetview vans in them...
Really, this is a picture of our galaxy, with a bit of universe in the background.
@Electrofreak
Earth is inside our galaxy (that why its our galaxy), so when we look out into space we see the stars and material from our galaxy all around us; only in the gaps can we see the universe beyond. The hardest part of interpreting the cosmology from these data, is actually accurately removing (peeling-away) all the unwanted/uninteresting foreground stuff (our galaxy).
@physsed Right, and according to the BBC article, the entire white strip in the middle of the photo is our galaxy, dominating the shot.
We can see where we will never go because the world is too busy playing with toy rockets. Maye the physicists can fix all that?
@dicobalt there is a map for that
I love seeing stuff like this in the morning, really brightens up my day...Hooray for Science....and religion fails to impress ANYBODY this much.
@DoctarPeppar
Religion may not impress people very much, but many people have their lives permanently changed by what they consider to be a 'spiritual' experience. Read "Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James for more on this. It's an old book, but very interesting.
In my opinion, I say, "Go science!" AND "Go religion/spiritual experience/whatever!" If something enlightens and improves people's lives, I'm all for it. Very excited to see the work that results from the data acquired by the Planck telescope.
@Abe
All of those people who have 'religious' experiences also have no idea how their brain senses and perceives/interprets information. What they experience is a combination of misinterpreting their subjective perception of normal cognitive functions and the perceptual bias from their desire to perceive what they want to perceive or what they've been told their whole lives that they should perceive.
I would say instead "Go science" and "Go education".
Religion perpetuates and propagates ignorance as that's the only way it can survive.
@Soletaken
Your attitude is shared by many now days and is being adopted by more. An attitude which has been foretold thousands of years ago in multiple texts as a sign of the end of the world. Your lack of faith strengthens the faith of millions. So please, keep it up!
this will be the time "when people will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will choose teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and go after fables" (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
Patiently awaiting Google Universe... "Turn left at Alpha Centauri for 750 million miles."
God help you if there's construction.
"gravity-assisted, ozone-protected, floating rock."
It's more than a rock. There's magma and water here too.
@terence
HELLO?!?! There's ME too....I didn't see MY name mentioned!
It's the newly leaked Verizon vs AT&T 5G coverage map!
*image not to scale
Waiting for the 3/5/7 year results. This puppy has 10 times the resolution of the WMAP satellite :) FYI, data from the WMAP puts the age of the Universe at 13.75 ±0.11 billion years and we know its composition to within
@iSmug
Dammit, engadget cut off special characters. Continuing:
to within less than 1% with baryonic matter accuracy at less than 0.1%. This will be even more accurate!