Concept
Planck (spacecraft)
Overview
Planck was a space observatory operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2009 to 2013. The project aimed to map the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at microwave and infrared frequencies, with high sensitivity and angular resolution. The mission provided data that substantially improved upon previous observations made by the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).
The Planck observatory was a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues. One of its key objectives was to test cosmological theories about the early Universe, its composition and evolution, and the origin of cosmic structure.
Planck was initially called COBRAS/SAMBA, which stands for the Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropies. The project started in 1996, and it was later renamed in honor of the German physicist Max Planck (1858–1947), who is widely regarded as the originator of quantum theory by deriving the formula for black-body radiation.
Built at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center by Thales Alenia Space, Planck was created as a medium-sized mission for ESA's Horizon 2000 long-term scientific program. The observatory was launched in May 2009 and reached the Earth/Sun L2 point by July 2009. By February 2010, it had successfully started a second all-sky survey.
On 21 March 2013, the Planck team released its first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The map allowed researchers to measure temperature variations in the CMB with the highest accuracy then available. In February 2015, an expanded release was published, which included polarization data. The final papers by the Planck team were released in July 2018, marking the end of the mission.
At the end of its mission, Planck was put into a heliocentric graveyard orbit and passivated to prevent it from endangering any future missions. The final deactivation command was sent to Planck in October 2013.
The mission provided the most precise measurements of several key cosmological parameters. Planck's observations helped determine the age of the universe, the average density of ordinary matter and dark matter in the Universe, and other important characteristics of the cosmos.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The axiom can be explained as follows: Let {alpha} and {beta} be the names of two time-systems. The directions of motion in the space of {alpha} due to rest in a point of {beta} is called the '{beta}-direction in {alpha}' and the direction of motion in the space of {beta} due to rest in a point of {alpha} is called the '{alpha}-direction in {beta}.' Consider a motion in the space of {alpha} consisting of a certain…
Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
States what Planck is.
The moral of this is that, if an electron is only known by its “effects,” there is no reason to suppose that anything exists except the “effects.” In so far as these “effects” consist of light waves and other electromagnetic disturbances, we may say that what is called “empty space” consists of regions where these disturbances are propagated freely. Every such disturbance, we find, has a center, and when we get very…
Bertrand Russell, The A B C of Relativity
States what Planck is.
We have seen that the world of the atom is a world of revolution rather than evolution: the electron which has been moving in one orbit hops quite suddenly into another, so that the motion is what is called “discontinuous”, that is to say, the electron is first in one place and then in another, without having passed over any intermediate places. This sounds like magic, and there may be some way of avoiding such a…
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
States what Planck is.
Related ideas
- BBC News
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- Ferrara
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Place in the tradition
Part of Outline of metaphysics.