"The High Frequency Instrument has reached the end of its observe life, but the Low Frequency Instrument will carry on observing for another year, and psychoanalysis of data from both instruments is still in the early phase," said Charles Lawrence, the U.S. Planck project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The scientific payoff as of the High Frequency instrument brilliantly winning operation is motionless to come."
NASA plays a significant role in the Planck mission, which is lead by the European Space Agency. In addition to serving with the analysis of the data, NASA contributes several key components to the mission itself. JPL built the state-of-the-art detectors that allowable the High Frequency Instrument to detect icy temperature down to nearly absolute zero, the coldest temperature hypothetically within reach.
Less than half a million years after the cosmos was created 13.7 billion years ago, the initial fireball cooled to temperatures of about 4,000 degrees Celsius (about 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit), releasing bright, visible light. As the cosmos has expanded, it has cooled radically, and its early light has faded and shifted to microwave wavelengths.
By studying pattern stamped in that light today, scientists hope to appreciate the Big Bang and the very early universe, as it appear long before galaxies and stars first shaped.Planck has been measure these patterns by survey the whole sky with its High Frequency Instrument and its Low Frequency Instrument. Mutual, they give Planck supreme wavelength coverage and the ability to resolve faint particulars.
Launched in May 2009, the smallest amount obligation for success was for the spacecraft to complete two whole surveys of the sky. In the end, Planck worked completely in completing not two, but five whole-sky surveys with both instrument. The Low Frequency Instrument will go on surveying the sky for a large part of 2012, as long as data to improve the excellence of the final results. The first results on the Big Bang and very early universe will not approach for a different year.