Artist's impression of the Planck spacecraft

Due to be launched in 2007, Planck will observe radiation released shortly after the 'Big Bang' that is still filling the Universe as if it were a 'shockwave' of the Big Bang itself. This radiation, called cosmic microwave background, contains a wealth of information about when the Universe started to expand and begin to cool 10 to 15 billion years ago. To 'read' this information scientists have to measure the temperature of the whole sky with a very high accuracy. ESA's Planck will provide the most accurate data ever obtained that will provide answers to fundamental questions such as: how old is the Universe, will it collapse into a 'big crunch' sometime in the future and is there any 'dark energy' accelerating the expansion of the Universe?