Planck Mission Provides Best Map of the Universe Ever

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The image shown above maps out the oldest light visible in our Universe. ESA’s Planck mission collected the data used to create this map over a period of about 15 months, and is some of the highest precision yet.

The primordial light, known as the cosmic microwave background, shined brightly when the universe was less than 400,000 years old. The colors on the map above indicate extremely small temperature fluctuations, which also happen to correspond to areas that are just slightly denser than others, which allowed said regions to cool quicker. These slightly denser regions of the Universe are thought to be the “seeds” that allowed galaxies, galaxy clusters, and other large-scale structures in the Universe.

Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA. To learn more about the Planck mission, visit: http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=planck

Source: NASA Planck Mission Updates

Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer