The Cosmic Dawn

Right now, in the deep reaches of space, a small spacecraft is collecting data that could change the way we view the universe forever. On August 13 the Planck spacecraft began working on a map of the entire sky that will take six months to complete, and in the course of doing this has captured images of the cosmic microwave background, or the “afterglow of the Big Bang.” This essentially means that they are seeing light from 13.73 billion years ago, a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang occurred.
NewScientist.com reported on this phenomenon, explaining that the information collected on this mission could give insight into the existence of different universes and dimensions, which could seriously increase our knowledge of space. The thought that in six months’ time we could be closer than ever before to understanding the complexities of the universe in which we live is both exciting and slightly terrifying. Who knows how things may change with these discoveries?
This news was also covered by universitytoday.com, an online science news source. Instead of reporting on the potential scientific findings of this work, they chose to focus on the manner in which the data is being collected. The Planck, must cool itself to with .1 degree Celsius of absolute zero in order to capture the images it is getting. The images are then coded to indicate variations in temperature, seen by using different frequencies.
Of the two sources I used, I felt that the NewScientist was the most credible. They publish a print magazine that is distributed every week as opposed to a blog format where anyone can post. They also presented more concrete numbers and facts than Universitytoday, which added to their believability. There were many sites displaying the same news about the Planck mission, which gives the impression that the story is credible and widely agreed upon.
As we have been talking in class about revolutionary ideas, I tried to think about what would make the cut as “revolutionary” today. Life on other planets, time travel, and alternate universes were all on the list. When I read about seeing the Cosmic Dawn and all of the possibilities that could be presented to us, the word “revolutionary” was one of the first that came to mind. The implications for all different aspects of life are astronomical. Everything we know about the final frontier could change with the information gleaned from these images. What is more revolutionary than that?


For those of you who are interested in learning more about L2 (or the second Legrange point), the point in space where the Planck spacecraft is located, click here. It's a fascinating article - apparently the reason they chose this spot as the location for the Planck is that a Langrangian point is an area in space "where all the gravitational forces acting between two objects cancel each other out and therefore can be used by spacecraft to 'hover'."


Atkinson, Nancy. "Planck First Light." Universe Today 17 Sep 2009:Web. 20 Sep 2009. http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/17/planck-first-light/#more-40511

"Planck First Light Yields Promising Results." ESA: European Space Agency. 17 Sep 2009. European Space Agency, Web. 21 Sep 2009. http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/SEM5CMFWNZF_0.html

Shiga, David. "Probe Gets Clearest Glimpse Yet of Cosmic Dawn." NewScientist 17 Sep 2009:Web. 20 Sep 2009. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17807-probe-gets-clearest-glimpse-yet-of-cosmic-dawn.html