Fast Facts
Planck is a space-borne, cryogenically-cooled cosmic microwave background survey mission capable of studying objects ranging from our Solar System to light reaching us almost from the Big Bang itself. Planck is an M3 mission in ESA's horizon 2000 program.
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Launch Date:
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May 2009
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Launch Vehicle:
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Ariane-5
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Estimated Lifetime:
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15 months routine operations
15 months extended operations
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Orbit:
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L2 The second Sun-Earth Lagrange Point
(~ 1.5 million km from Earth, or 3.9 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon)
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Wavelength Coverage:
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0.033-1.0 cm
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Telescope:
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1.5 m
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Detectors:
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LFI: 56 HEMTs (30-100 GHz)
HFI: 48 Bolometers (100-850 GHz)
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Resolution:
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LFI: 12-33' (100-33 GHz)
HFI: 10.7-5' (100-857 GHz)
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Science Capabilities:
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Total Power and Polarization Capabilities
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Launch Mass:
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1.5 tons
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Dimensions:
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~ 4 m high × 4.5 m wide
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