Dynamic side of the early universe: Only 380,000 years after the Big Bang

The Planck collaboration, which includes the CNRS, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the French National Space Agency (CNES) and several French universities and institutions, has just released data from four years of observation by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Planck spacecraft. The aim of the Planck mission is to study the Cosmic Microwave Background, the light left over from the Big Bang. The measurements, taken in nine frequency bands, were used to map not only the temperature of the radiation but also its polarization[1], which provides additional information about both the very early Universe (when it was 380,000 years old) and our Galaxy's magnetic field.

The data and the accompanying articles have been submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and are available on ESA's website[2]. This information will enable scientists to better determine the matter and energy content of the Universe, the age of the birth of the first stars, and the rate at which space is expanding.