Planck (spacecraft)

Planck

A model of Planck
Names	COBRAS/SAMBA
Mission type	Space telescope
Operator	ESA
COSPAR ID	2009-026B
SATCAT no.	34938
Website	www.esa.int/planck
Mission duration	Planned: >15 months Final: 4 years, 5 months, 8 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Thales Alenia Space
Launch mass	1,950 kg (4,300 lb)[1]
Payload mass	205 kg (452 lb)
Dimensions	Body: 4.20 m × 4.22 m (13.8 ft × 13.8 ft)
Start of mission
Launch date	14 May 2009, 13:12:02 UTC (2009-05-14UTC13:12:02)
Rocket	Ariane 5 ECA
Launch site	Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
Contractor	Arianespace
Entered service	3 July 2009
End of mission
Disposal	Decommissioned
Deactivated	23 October 2013, 12:10:27 UTC (2013-10-23UTC12:10:28)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Sun-Earth L2 orbit (1,500,000 km / 930,000 mi)
Regime	Lissajous
Main telescope
Type	Gregorian
Diameter	1.9 m × 1.5 m (6.2 ft × 4.9 ft)
Wavelengths	300 µm – 11.1 mm (frequencies between 27 GHz and 1 THz)
Instruments HFI High Frequency Instrument LFI Low Frequency Instrument
ESA astrophysics insignia for Planck Horizon 2000 ← Herschel Gaia →

Planck was a space observatory operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2009 to 2013. It was an ambitious project that aimed to map the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at microwave and infrared frequencies, with high sensitivity and small angular resolution. The mission was highly successful and substantially improved upon observations made by the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

The Planck observatory was a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues. One of its key objectives was to test theories of the early Universe and the origin of cosmic structure. The mission provided significant insights into the composition and evolution of the Universe, shedding light on the fundamental physics that governs the cosmos.

Planck was initially called COBRAS/SAMBA, which stands for the Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropies. The project started in 1996, and it was later renamed in honor of the German physicist Max Planck (1858–1947), who is widely regarded as the originator of quantum theory by deriving the formula for black-body radiation.

Built at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center by Thales Alenia Space, Planck was created as a medium-sized mission for ESA's Horizon 2000 long-term scientific program. The observatory was launched in May 2009 and reached the Earth/Sun L2 point by July 2009. By February 2010, it had successfully started a second all-sky survey.

On 21 March 2013, the Planck team released its first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The map was of exceptional quality and allowed researchers to measure temperature variations in the CMB with unprecedented accuracy. In February 2015, an expanded release was published, which included polarization data. The final papers by the Planck team were released in July 2018, marking the end of the mission.

At the end of its mission, Planck was put into a heliocentric graveyard orbit and passivated to prevent it from endangering any future missions. The final deactivation command was sent to Planck in October 2013.

The mission was a remarkable success and provided the most precise measurements of several key cosmological parameters. Planck's observations helped determine the age of the universe, the average density of ordinary matter and dark matter in the Universe, and other important characteristics of the cosmos.