Planck was a European Space Agency space observatory that mapped the cosmic microwave background, the faint radiation left over from the early universe. It was launched on the same rocket as the Herschel Space Observatory and stationed near the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Its detectors were cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. Planck measured tiny temperature variations in the radiation with higher sensitivity than earlier missions, and its results refined estimates of the age of the universe, about 13.8 billion years, and of the proportions of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark energy. It completed its observations in 2013.
Before and after
- 6 April 20092009 L'Aquila earthquake
- 21 April 2009Discovery of Gliese 581 e
- 30 April 20092009 attack on the Dutch royal family
- 14 May 2009Launch of Herschel Space Observatory
- 14 May 2009Launch of Planck
- from 19 May 2009 to 20 March 2015Premiere of Glee
- 1 June 2009Air France Flight 447
- 3 June 2009Release of Microsoft Bing
- 6 June 20092009 European Parliament election in Cyprus
More in Universe & space
- 16 February 1948Discovery of Miranda
- 5 September 1977Launch of Voyager 1
- 4 March 1979Discovery of Metis
- 8 July 1979Discovery of Adrastea
- 24 April 1990Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
- 25 December 2021Launch of James Webb Space Telescope
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.