Planck telescope
Artist's impression of the Planck spacecraft
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| Names | COBRAS/SAMBA | ||||||
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| Mission type | Space telescope | ||||||
| Operator | ESA | ||||||
| COSPAR ID | 2009-026B | ||||||
| SATCAT no. | 34938 | ||||||
| Website | http://www.esa.int/planck | ||||||
| Mission duration | Planned: >15 months Final: 4 years, 5 months, 8 days |
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| Spacecraft properties | |||||||
| Manufacturer | Thales Alenia Space | ||||||
| Launch mass | 1,950 kg (4,300 lb) | ||||||
| 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 | ||||||
| Rocket | Ariane 5 ECA | ||||||
| Launch site |
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana |
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| Contractor | Arianespace | ||||||
| Entered service | 3 July 2009 | ||||||
| End of mission | |||||||
| Disposal | Decommissioned | ||||||
| Deactivated | 23 October 2013, 12:10:27 UTC | ||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||
| Reference system |
L2 point (1,500,000 km / 930,000 mi) |
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| Regime | Lissajous | ||||||
| Main telescope | |||||||
| Type | Gregorian | ||||||
| Diameter | 1.9 m × 1.5 m (6.2 ft × 4.9 ft) | ||||||
| Wavelengths | 27 GHz to 1 THz | ||||||
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| Instruments | |
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| HFI | High Frequency Instrument |
| LFI | Low Frequency Instrument |
ESA astrophysics insignia for the Planck mission
Planck was a space observatory operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2009 to 2013, which mapped the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at microwave and infra-red frequencies, with high sensitivity and small angular resolution. The mission substantially improved upon observations made by the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Planck provided a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early Universe and the origin of cosmic structure; as of 2013 it has provided the most accurate measurements of several key cosmological parameters, including the average density of ordinary matter and dark matter in the Universe.
The project was started around 1996 and was initially called COBRAS/SAMBA: the Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropies. It was later renamed in honour of the German physicist Max Planck (1858–1947), who derived the formula for black-body radiation.
Built at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center by Thales Alenia Space, and created as a medium-sized mission for ESA's Horizon 2000 long-term scientific programme, Planck was launched in May 2009, reaching the Earth/Sun L2 point by July, and by February 2010 had successfully started a second all-sky survey. On 21 March 2013, the mission's first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background was released, with an expanded release including polarization data in February 2015.
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