The most detailed relic radiation map of the Universe has been published.

The European Space Agency has published a detailed relic radiation map (microwave background radiation), compiled from the data collected by the Planck Space Observatory since 2009. The relic radiation map is a map of our Universe 30 thousand years before the first atoms began to form from plasma.

The Big Bang Theory suggests that 13.8 billion years ago there was a transition of the Universe from a singular state. As a result of cosmic inflation in the Planck era, the Universe expanded 10 trillion times in ^10–32 seconds, with the field energy changing into particle energy. Under such conditions, with the expansion, quantum effects appeared. They explain the variations in the density of matter in different regions of the Universe.


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In other words, current stars and galaxies have formed in those areas where there was an increased density of matter due to quantum effects on inflation. The mere existence of relic radiation is one of the main confirmations of the Big Bang theory.

The background radiation map from the Planck Observatory makes it clear what the Universe looked like 370 thousand years after the Big Bang. Now the radiation temperature is 2.7 ° K and it comes in almost uniformly from all sides.

Information from the Plank Observatory made it possible to clarify the age of the Universe (13.8 billion years instead of 13.7 billion), and also clarify the share of dark energy in the Universe (68.3% instead of 72.8%).



Planck also confirmed the existence of two interesting phenomena. The first of them is the change in the amplitude of temperatures in two halves of the Universe.


The change in temperature amplitude in the two halves of the universe

The second phenomenon is an unusually large cold spot, clearly visible on the map. It used to be thought that this was a measurement error, but the Planck Observatory provided more accurate information confirming the effect.


Comparison of the resolution of astronomical satellites recording relic radiation

At the same time, the data from Planck did not provide any evidence of the existence of cosmic strings or other objects confirming string theory.