Date: 03/09/2009
Category: Physics, chemistry and mathematics
Contact: Eduardo Battaner López
Telephone: (+34) 958 24 33 05
Email: battaner@goliat.ugr.es
It is intended that the collaboration between the two groups of the Andalusian research plan be successful having astronomers and mathematicians working together. As from 2007, the Planck mission will try to find an answer to questions such as how the Universe was created and when terrestrial life first appeared. The satellite will orbit about 1.5 million Km from the Earth. Countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Spain have participated in its design. Planck will take the picture of the whole sky twice, which will allow to get to know in detail the formation, structure and function of primitive cosmic objects, like galaxies and stars.
According to the interview of Eduardo Battaner to Andalucía Innova, the idea is that the project analyses, among others, ‘the influence of the main magnetic field on the formation of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation anisotropies. This fossil radiation, which comes from the first phases of the Universe, will allow to know not only what the original Cosmos was like but also its composition and evolution.
Planck, created throughout more than a decade, is ready to find this out. According to Battaner, ‘it is going to be ten times more sensitive’ than any of the ones used in previous missions, ‘it is going to cover twice the frequency channels and is going to have triple angular resolution’. Planck will cost over 400 million euros. Battaner’s team has been studying the formation, evolution and structure of galaxies for years, although this is the first time he (¿it?) takes part in an astrophysical space mission. Battaner is Co-Investigator, Planck Scientist and Core-Team member of the Planck mission.
The participation of this group and the University in this project ‘is essential’, as ‘there is no doubt that this is the main space project ever in this line’. If the mission is successful, we are going to discover things that ‘are going to completely change the image we have of the Universe’. To his view, it is ‘a very important step not only for the progress in Cosmology but also for the development of sciences in general’.
A project of excellence
Planck is the first European mission specifically designed to study the origins and evolution of the Universe. It will be ten times more sensitive than any other previous mission with the same objective. Planck will analyse in detail the oldest radiation ever, that is, the Cosmic Microwave Background or CMB, and in doing so, it will obtain key information on the Big Bang and the first phases in the formation of the matter, and in general, of the Universe as we know it.
The objective of this project is to observe the Cosmos when it only was 400,000 years old after the Big Bang, a very relevant fact indeed if we bear in mind that its current age is 14,000 million years. The Andalusian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprise is sponsoring this project of excellence with 72,000 Euros.
