Planck scientists reveal all!

Planck is an ESA mission which aims to find out how the Universe began, or at least to bring us much closer to understanding how it all started.
It turns out that the Big Bang model, although generally
accepted nowadays, is by no means the end of the story:
what caused the Big Bang in the first place?

Planck will be launched in 2007, but already about 300 physicists worldwide are working hard on it. A new section on the Planck web site will contain interviews with some of these experts in which they explain what is currently known (and not known) about the beginning of the Universe. These experts will also ‘translate’ the often confusing cosmological jargon.

What do they mean by a ‘flat’ Universe?

Is the Universe finite or infinite, and can we ever know its size?

And, what is this ‘dark energy’ that we hear about?

The section opens with two interviews. In one, Andrew Lange of the BOOMERANG project explains some of the BOOMERANG results and considers what contribution the Planck mission will make to our understanding of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. In another, British astronomer Joseph Silk tells us that “we may never know whether the Universe is finite or infinite”.

Related Links