| Planck Satellite | |
|---|---|
 Planck Satellite |
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| General information | |
| Alternative names: | COBRAS/SAMBA |
| Organization: | ESA |
| Launched: | Around 31 July 2008 |
| Location: | 1.5×106 km from Earth (L2 Lagrangian point) |
| Wavelength: | 30–857 GHz |
| Instruments | |
| Low Frequency Instrument (LFI): | 30–70 GHz receivers |
| High Frequency Instrument (HFI): | 100–857 GHz receivers |
| Website: | ESA's Planck Satellite webpage |
The Planck Satellite is a spacecraft built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, that is designed to observe the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation over the entire sky, with both high sensitivity and high angular resolution. It was created as the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA's Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme. It was formerly called COBRAS/SAMBA; after the mission was selected and approved, it was renamed in honor of the German scientist Max Planck (1858-1947), Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. The mission will be complement and improve upon observations made by NASA's WMAP probe, which has measured the anisotropies at larger angular scales and lower sensitivity. Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the Early Universe and the origin of cosmic structure. It will be launched in 2008 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket together with the Herschel Space Observatory satellite.
Contents |
Instruments
The spacecraft carries two instruments; the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI).[1] Both instruments can detect both the total intensity and polarization of photons, and cover a frequency range of 30 to 857GHz.
Low Frequency Instrument
| Frequency (GHz) |
Bandwidth (<math>\Delta \nu / \nu</math>) |
Resolution (arcmin) |
Sensitivity (total intensity) <math>\Delta T / T</math>, 14 month observation (10-6) |
Sensitivity (polarization) <math>\Delta T / T</math>, 14 month observation (10-6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30GHz | 0.2 | 33 | 2.0 | 2.8 |
| 44GHz | 0.2 | 24 | 2.7 | 3.9 |
| 70GHz | 0.2 | 14 | 4.7 | 6.7 |
The LFI has three frequency bands, covering the range of 30-70GHz. The detectors use High Electron Mobility Transistors.[1]
High Frequency Instrument
| Frequency (GHz) |
Bandwidth (<math>\Delta \nu / \nu</math>) |
Resolution (arcmin) |
Sensitivity (total intensity) <math>\Delta T / T</math>, 14 month observation (10-6) |
Sensitivity (polarization) <math>\Delta T / T</math>, 14 month observation (10-6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100GHz | 0.33 | 10 | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| 143GHz | 0.33 | 7.1 | 2.2 | 4.2 |
| 217GHz | 0.33 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 9.8 |
| 353GHz | 0.33 | 5.0 | 14.7 | 29.8 |
| 545GHz | 0.33 | 5.0 | 147 | N/A |
| 857GHz | 0.33 | 5.0 | 6700 | N/A |
The HFI has six frequency bands, between 100 and 857GHz. They use bolometers to detect photons. The 4 lower frequency bands have sensitivity to linear polarization; the two higher bands do not.[1]
Scientific aims
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The mission has a wide variety of scientific aims, including:[2]
- High resolution detections of both the total intensity and polarization of the primordial CMB anisotropies
- Creation of a catalogue of galaxy clusters through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
- Observations of the gravitational lensing of the CMB, as well as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
- Observations of bright extragalactic radio (Active Galactic Nuclei) and infrared (dusty galaxy) sources
- Observations of the Milky Way, including the local interstellar medium, distributed synchrotron emission and measurements of the Galactic magnetic field.
- Studies of the local Solar System, including planets, asteroids, comets and the Zodiacal light.
References
- Planck: The Scientific Programme (also known as the Blue Book). European Space Agency. ESA-SCI(2005)-1. Version 2.
See also
External links
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| Space based experiments | RELIKT-1 · COBE · WMAP · Planck · SPOrt |
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| Balloon experiments | QMAP · Saskatoon · MAXIMA · BOOMERanG · Archeops Spider |
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| Ground based experiments | MAT · COSMOSOMAS · Tenerife Experiment · DASI · CBI · CAT · ACBAR · CAPMAP VSA · QUaD · SPT · SZA · ACT · AMI · Clover |
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