Planck - ESA's Time Machine
ESA TV Exchanges
In about one year, ESA will launch Planck, a satellite to map the cosmic background radiation with unprecedented accuracy. Many features of the early universe are still unexplained, and need assumptions like the existence of ""dark energy"" to describe the formation of the very first galaxies. Planck is expected to help shedding more light on these mysteries.
This Exchange includes soundbites by NASA scientist George Smoot who received the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the cosmi background radiation.
The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS51998.pdf
A WMV preview clip is online under http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mphi/PLANCK_12-04-07_wmphigh.wmv

Planck, ESAís time machine
A-Roll start 10:01:00
10:01:40 Due to be launched in 2008, the European Space Agencyís Planck mission will be helping scientists travel back in time by studying a tenuous radiation, believed to be the shockwave of the Big Bang.
10:01:54 Measuring this cosmic background radiation will also help astronomers to verify their theories about the overall composition of the Universe, including the invisible dark matter, and notably the controversial debate of the existence and nature of mysterious dark energy.
10:02:13 Everything in the Universe, near and far, emits radiation. Microwave ovens in our kitchens produce it, generating heat in what ever we place in them.
10:02:23 Clip George Smoot, Planck co-Investigator, University of California, Berkeley & Nobel Physics Laureate 2006 ""In the case of the Universe, the radiation is already in the form of heat. The heat radiation, just like light of the Sun. One time the Universe was hotter than the Sun but t