The results amount to the most detailed map of the CMB ever created, dating the Universe at 13.82 billion years old. Scientists say that Planck’s findings refine our knowledge of the Universe’s composition and evolution, and provide excellent evidence for the standard model of cosmology.
Findings also show there is nearly a fifth more dark matter in the Universe than previously thought, but less dark energy.
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Image: Map of the cosmic microwave background
Credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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Planck captures portrait of the young Universe, revealing earliest light
22 March 2013
After years of work, scientists have removed bright foreground emissions from the Planck satellite’s first all-sky image to reveal the Universe’s earliest light – imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380,000 years old – and seen today as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the relic radiation from the Big Bang.