after a long break I'm back with no less than 5 new articles about what can arguably be described as my favourite spacecraft, Planck!! the stories cover a bunch of really cool results that have been achieved from its early data and presented at a conference in Paris last week, spanning a wide range of astronomical objects that will suit everyone's palate — from tiny dust grains in our Galaxy all the way to the huge galaxy clusters and the distribution of galaxies on the largest scales. enjoy :)Planck's first science results and the release of an extensive compact source catalogue
The Planck Collaboration presents the first science results to emerge from the mission, covering compact and diffuse foreground emission sources, at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. These results are accompanied by the release of the first Planck product to be publicly distributed: the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, a highly robust compilation of compact sources detected in each of the telescope's nine channels. Eagerly awaited by the scientific community, the catalogue contents span a wide variety of astronomical sources, and also includes a sample of galaxy clusters detected through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and a list of cold molecular cloud cores distributed throughout the Milky Way.
More...Planck's successful hunt probes galaxy clusters on very broad mass range
The first all-sky survey of galaxy clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect is amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. The survey, which has benefited from a fruitful collaboration with ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, probes a wide range of cluster masses and other properties, which is unprecedented for a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich sample. Along with the first results enabled by the survey, the Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Cluster sample is being publicly released, providing the community with a robust data set for further studies and follow-up observations of galaxy clusters.
More...Planck traces the coldest objects in the nearby Universe
With its power to detect cosmic material at unprecedentedly low temperatures, Planck has completed the first unbiased, all-sky survey of compact cold and dusty objects in the Milky Way and, at the same time, the first all-sky survey of cool dust in other galaxies. These extensive data sets allow astronomers to shed new light on the earliest phases of star formation. The public release of the Planck Early Cold Core Catalogue will offer the community a large number of new, cold galactic targets to be studied with other telescopes, including ESA's Herschel Space Observatory.
More...Planck sees new, mysterious components in Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds
Thanks to its broad spectral coverage and very high sensitivity, Planck is peering deep into the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and discovering new components and physical mechanisms taking place therein. The results emerging from Planck's first all-sky survey include strong evidence for the presence of extremely rapidly spinning dust grains, an excess emission explained in terms of a previously poorly quantified 'dark gas' and the characterisation of an excess emission arising from the interstellar medium that permeates the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way.
More...Planck sees traces of early structure formation in the cosmic infrared background
While targeting the Cosmic Microwave Background, Planck has also captured another important diffuse radiation, the Cosmic Infrared Background, which consists of the light emitted by all galaxies since their formation. This signal, detected by Planck at submillimetre wavelengths, exhibits a high degree of structure and enables astronomers to investigate the still unclear link between star-forming galaxies and the underlying distribution of dark matter, up to the earliest phases of the formation of cosmic structure.
More...Image credits: ESA and the Planck Collaboration
Teaming up with other telescopes monitoring the Crab Nebula, ESA's INTEGRAL observatory has made a significant contribution to demonstrating that this source, previously believed to be a standard candle, might not be so reliable, after all. The small, but measurable dimming of what was until now considered to be one of the brightest and, most importantly, the steadiest source in the high-energy sky calls for a re-examination of how X-ray and gamma-ray observations are calibrated. More...
