Planck Mission
Education and Public Outreach Site
for North America

Welcome to the Education and Public Outreach Website for the Planck Mission in North America. Planck is an international mission of NASA , the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration and ESA , the European Space Agency. Set to launch in 2010, Planck will map the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation of the universe in great detail, across many frequency bands, as well as measure the polarization of the CMB.

Planck is the third satellite mission to map the CMB, coming after the COBE and WMAP satellites.

Here you will find information about the mission, as well as general information about cosmology, extracting information from the Power Spectrum of the CMB, and understanding what we can learn about the physics of the early universe by studying the polarization power spectrum of the CMB.

Planck Mission Science Objectives at a Glance:

1. Mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies with improved sensitivity and angular resolution
2. Mapping the polarization signal of the CMB
3. Determination of Hubble constant
4. Testing inflationary models of the early universe
5. Measuring amplitude of structures in Cosmic Microwave Background

Planck will provide a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB, also called Cosmic Background Radiation Field, or CBRF) at high angular resolution, covering at least 95% of the sky over a wide frequency range. Planck has been designed to have ten times better sensitivity to temperature variations of the CMB and more than fifty times the angular resolution of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft. The simultaneous mapping of the sky over a wide frequency range will permit the separation of Galactic and extragalactic foreground radiation from the primordial cosmological background signal. Planck will offer vastly improved performance compared to balloon-borne and ground-based experiments and will exceed the performance of other space-based instruments. The spacecraft revolves about its Sun-pointing axis once per minute to gyroscopically stabilise its attitude. Planck will use this stabilisation spin to operate in a sky scanning survey mode, observing at least 95% of the sky on two separate occasions within twelve months. For a summary of the scientific objectives, please visit our Planck Information Page . For the full story, please see the home page of the Planck Mission at the European Space Agency.

• The Universe Adventure at U.C. Berkeley

  A beautiful tutorial about cosmology, patterned after the Particle Adventure, developed at the University of California, Berkeley. Suitable for beginning students in cosmology of all ages, and for teachers who want to develop easy-to-implement classroom activities.

• Planck General Educational Materials at U.C. Santa Barbara

  General overview of the mission: science objectives, orbital parameters, and scientific instruments, followed by a tutorial on understanding the CMB Power Spectrum and Polarization.

• Labs for a Lambda-Dominated Universe at U.C. Santa Barbara

  This is a set of activities designed to teach students about the basics of cosmology, with readings, references, modeling exercises, and image processing activities. Suitable for undergraduates with some physics background, for advanced high school students, or for teachers who want to develop a more in-depth knowledge of the subject.

• Symmmetry and Aesthetics in Contemporary Physics at U.C. Santa Barbara

  This is the first quarter of an introductory interdisciplinary physics course that is based on symmetry and contemporary physics, and provides a good foundation for a more in-depth treatment of cosmology.

• Observing the Universe at Purdue University

  This unit was developed by undergraduate physics and education majors, with Professor Laura Cayon of Purdue University, for third grade students and teachers. Here you will find lesson plans, lab activities for observing the universe with "naked eyes" and evaluation tools for teachers.

• Cosmology "at" Home at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne

  Contribute to CMB research with your own PC! Download software which will allow your computer to be used to calculate CMB power spectra with varying model parameters. When you are not using your computer, you can lend its CPU time to this distributed computing project. Join a team or form your own, and collaborate with others. It's free, fascinating, fun, and educational!