Planck Initial Observations

ESA has released first light pictures of Planck's - the third generation of
Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy space instruments - first
operational scan.  

The false colour image below shows a comparison of a small area of
space whose minute temperature variation away from 2.7K are
displayed at 70 GHz (from the Low Frequency Instrument, for which
we did nothing) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI). The match is
very good, indicating that both instruments are performing well.

TK was, with others, involved in the design of the HFI antenna array
and manufactured the horns - shown in the image below.  

THE TK made forest of HFI horns - held by Richard Wylde. More
details are availabe on the Planck site

There is also a note on what Planck hopes to achieve by George Efstathiou of
the Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge

Images thanks to ESA.