Le site de vulgarisation scientifique de l’Université de Liège. ULg, Université de Liège

Planck is in Liège!
5/29/08

A great deal is riding on the observations that will be made by Planck, in terms of clearing up certain mysteries of the cosmos. As of this moment, we are acquainted with only 4% of the matter of the Universe, namely visible matter. But we do not know the exact nature of the 23% of the universe that is made up of dark matter, and we know next to nothing about that which constitutes 73% of the mass of the universe, dark energy! From dark matter and dark energy there came, in a violent event, the spark of the Big Bang - according to theory. The hypothesis of a “let there be light” phenomenon is part of an attempt to explain why the universe is expanding. This theory is controversial, although the discovery of CBR, cosmic microwave background radiation, by means of detectors in space, has restored its reputation to some extent.

GSmoot-Liege
The American George Smoot, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics for 2006 for his work on data transmitted from the American satellite COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer), believes in the Big Bang. He believes that the European satellite observatory, Planck, will produce proof that the universe is expanding. Planck’s data, which is expected to be very precise, will include measurements of the universe accurate to 1%, and produce evidence of gravitational waves whose fluctuations should reveal the expansion of the universe, as well as the nature and quantity of the universe’s “missing mass” (dark matter and dark energy). George Smoot is already impatient to see the results of Planck’s observations. Stay tuned, for in 2010, thanks to the observations of the satellite Planck, we may enter a new era in cosmology.

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