The region of the Orion Nebula, including a circular wave front from an expolded star. Image credit Esa
27th April 2010
Esa’s Planck Observatory is a mission to study the cosmic microwave background radiation. The CMB is a remnant of what was emitted way back through the depths of time to just a few hundred thousand years after the mother of all explosions, the Big Bang itself. This radiation is the oldest known radiation in the universe, and it’s Planck’s job to map the entire sky for this ancient radiation relic with it’s instruments sensitive to very long wavelengths, in the radio part of the spectrum.
But to get at the CMB it has to get through all the stuff in the way. The stuff in the way can be very important, yes…but it’s not the true goal of the observatory. But this stuff in the way has recently been highlighted by Planck’s unique eyes. It’s the gas and dust clouds that fill our Galaxy, the raw materials of star and solar system formation.
The image above shows the Orion Nebula region showing details that are invisible to normal visible light telescopes. Two bright areas are evident, the one at the lower middle is the main part of the Orion Nebula, and the other bright spot to the upper right is the region around the Horsehead Nebula. The interesting red circular formation incredibly is a blast front from an exploded star that went off in the nebula around 2 million years ago, the ring now spans 300 light years across.
An image of part of the Perseus region. Image credit Esa
This image above shows the area in the Perseus constellation part of our Galaxy, with delicate tendtrils of dust and gas filling the area. Although it’s not as crowded and busy as the Orion Nebula area taken by Planck.
The observatory is sitting in space on the night time side of Earth, 1.5 million kilometeres away.
DISCUSS this, or go to the HOME PAGE
