Planck telescope confirms the universe began with a Big Bang 13.84 billion years ago

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9946222/New-images-confirm-Big-Bang-theory.html

The "map" of light originating from the dawn of time, captured by the £515m Planck space telescope, reveals patterns which scientists say confirm that the universe began with a Big Bang.







The images, released on Thursday, suggest that at 13.84 billion years the universe is older than previously thought - albeit by only 48 million years.

They also suggest it contains slightly more matter than expected and a little less "dark energy", the mysterious force which is believed to drive the expansion of the universe.




The maps were captured over 15 months by the European Space Agency telescope, by examining the faint glow of microwave radiation found in space known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).



Small ripples in the CMB represent the earliest seeds of stars and galaxies, dating back to when the universe was just 380,000 years old and consisted of a "primordial soup" of energetic particles.



The maps appear to support the "inflation" theory, which says the universe briefly expanded faster than the speed of light an instant after the Big Bang.


Evidence from Planck also provides a better idea of how the mass-energy of the universe is divided up into parts that are visible and hidden.



Normal matter that forms stars and galaxies contributes just 4.9 per cent and dark matter, of which little is understood, makes up 26.8 per cent, a fifth more than was previously thought. Dark energy accounts for around 69 per cent.



Planck is over three times more sensitive than its predecessor, the WMAP satellite. Its high frequency microwave detector is cooled to just 0.1C above absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible.
That enables it to detect variations in the temperature of the CMB as small as a millionth of a degree.