Planck and Herschel European Observatories!

Two European telescopes have launched into space today which could solve the mystery surrounding the origins of the universe.The Herschel and Planck observatories were sent into orbit together from French Guinea 14/05/2009 at 2.12pm With the biggest mirror yet flown in space, Herschel will peer through a new wavelength window at the cool regions of the universe by observing long-wavelength infrared.

It will also be used to study comets, asteroids, and planetary atmospheres in our solar system and how debris disks around stars form into planets.Meanwhile Planck will map the fossil light of the Universe - light from the Big Bang – with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. It will allow scientists to travel back nearly 14billion years in time.Scientists say the data gathered could also tell us more about the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which constitutes most of the universe.An European Space Agency (ESA) spokesman said: 'The two missions are among the most ambitious ever carried out by Europe and mark the crossing of new frontiers in the field of space-based astronomy!

"Uncertain" physics.

Planck is a survey telescope. It will spin to map the sky at even longer wavelengths of light - in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It will make the finest ever measurements of what has become known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The CMB is the "oldest light" in the Universe. It is all around us and comes from a time 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
PLANCK SPACE TELESCOPE
Planck is moving at almost 10km/s when ejected and will survey the famous Cosmic Microwave Background.This ancient light's origins date to 380,000 years after the Big Bang. It informs scientists about the age, contents and shape of the cosmos
Planck's measurements will be finer than any previous satellite. The extra detail may confirm inflation, even find new physics Planck prepares to go super-cold Scientists say there are temperature variations in this ancient heat energy that can give them insights into the early structure of the Universe. Planck will be the third spacecraft to investigate the CMB, after Nasa's COBE and WMAP satellites.
"Planck has the sharpest sight so far; it has the most sensitive instruments and the widest frequency range; and it will therefore make that next big step," explained Esa's project scientist on the mission, Dr Jan Tauber. "It will allow us to pin down all the basic characteristics of the Universe with very high accuracy - its age, its contents, how it evolved, its geometry, etc."

One key question facing Planck concerns "inflation". This is the faster than light expansion that cosmologists believe the Universe experienced in its first, fleeting moments. Theory predicts this event ought to be "imprinted" in the CMB and the detail should be retrievable with sufficiently sensitive instruments. Planck is designed to have that capability. Planck investigator Professor George Efstathiou from Cambridge University, UK, thinks the telescope could throw up fundamentally new discoveries. "We will be probing regimes that have never been studied before where the physics is very, very uncertain," he said. "It's possible we could find a signature from before the Big Bang; or it's possible we could find the signature of another Universe and then we'd have experimental evidence that we are part of a multi-verse." From Book club here are the exact orbits above the earth with the hope they will give more data on the origin of our Galaxy the milky way!