Planck Science Team Home Planck was selected as the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA's Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme, and is today part of its Cosmic Vision Programme. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Background Radiation Field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. Planck will provide 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. The scientific development of the mission is directed by the Planck Science Team.
Planck was formerly called COBRAS/SAMBA. After the mission was selected and approved (in late 1996), it was renamed in honor of the German scientist Max Planck (1858-1947), Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. Planck was launched on 14 May 2009 together with the Herschel satellite. After launch, Planck and Herschel separated and are now proceeding to different orbits around the second Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun System. Latest news are available via the menu at left.
A complete science case for Planck, often referred to as the "Bluebook", is available for download here. More information on Planck may be accessed via the links to the left and right (some of the links are restricted).
Please note that these pages are largely directed to the astronomical and Planck communities.
Other Planck pages under ESA's Main Planck Portal and Sci-Tech Planck Portal are more specifically directed to the public and the press. Need help ? If you are a member of the Planck Collaboration, with access to restricted areas of rssd pages, and are having problems using these facilities, you can ask for help by sending an email to RSSD Helpdesk putting "Planck" in the subject field. Also note that: (a) logging in via the rssd portal - via the menu at the left - solves most access problems; (b) if you have problems with your password, first try the automated password reset facility via the menu at left.
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