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| | | | | | | | Article Images |  |
Sophisticated spacecraft
| Artist's impression of the Planck satellite spinning in space.
Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab | |  |  | |
| | | | | To achieve the mission goals, the Planck instruments – the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) - will operate at a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this, a series of cooling stages are required.
Credits: ESA (image by AOES Medialab) | | | | |
| | | | The coldest detectors
| To achieve the mission goals, the Planck instruments – the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) - will operate at a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this, a series of cooling stages are required.
The picture shows the first cooling stage which brings the temperature of LFI and HFI down to around 20K.
Credits: ESA (image by AOES Medialab) | | | | |
| | | | | To achieve the mission goals, the Planck instruments – the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) - will operate at a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this, a series of cooling stages are required.
The picture shows the second cooling stage which brings the temperature inside HFI down to 4K.
Credits: ESA (image by AOES Medialab) | | | | |
| | | | | To achieve the mission goals, the Planck instruments – the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) - will operate at a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this, a series of cooling stages are required.
The picture shows the third and last cooling stage, bringing down the temperature of the bolometers in HFI down to 0.1 K.
Credits: ESA (image by AOES Medialab) | | | | |
| | | | Sharp vision
| | | | Broad wavelength coverage
| View of the Planck telescope and focal plane unit, with the spacecraft in a horizontal position inside the Focal-5 vacuum chamber.
Credits: ESA/Thales | | | | |
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| | Planck: looking back at the dawn of time Read more Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiationTravelling back in timeObservations: Seeing in microwave wavelengthsSo, how did everything start?In depth Planck in depthPlanck spacecraft in depth
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