Planck All-Sky Images Show Cold Gas and Strange Haze

[n2doc]

This all-sky image shows the distribution of carbon monoxide (CO), a molecule used by astronomers to trace molecular clouds across the sky, as seen by Planck. Image credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration › Full image and caption



This all-sky image shows the distribution of the galactic haze seen by ESA's Planck mission at microwave frequencies superimposed over the high-energy sky, as seen by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration (microwave); NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT/D. Finkbeiner et al. (gamma rays)

New images from the Planck mission show previously undiscovered islands of star formation and a mysterious haze of microwave emissions in our Milky Way galaxy. The views give scientists new treasures to mine and take them closer to understanding the secrets of our galaxy.

Planck is a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation.

"The images reveal two exciting aspects of the galaxy in which we live," said Planck scientist Krzysztof M. Gorski from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and Warsaw University Observatory in Poland. "They show a haze around the center of the galaxy, and cold gas where we never saw it before."

The new images show the entire sky, dominated by the murky band of our Milky Way galaxy. One of them shows the unexplained haze of microwave light previously hinted at in measurements by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/news/planck20120213.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. We use sounds to communicate, in an extremely narrow band. What if

otherif other critters use microwaves for the same purpose? Wouldn't their conversations appear like a cloud to us?

[Speck Tater]

2. Nah. It's just that the aliens really like microwave popcorn. nt

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

4. But they like to try popping it from light years away

Intergalactic treaties are made by popping the popcorn of the other party from your own home world (and of course, they do your popcorn) Burning the popcorn is a signal of war.

[Soylent Brice]

3. this is pretty cool. thanks for sharing. n/t

[Javaman]

5. You sure this wasn't romney's MRI? nt