The media has been awash with images from the Planck satellite this week. Here’s a short explanation from The New York Times:

Astronomers released the latest and most exquisite baby picture yet of the universe on Thursday, one that showed it to be 80 million to 100 million years older and a little fatter than previously thought, with more matter in it and perhaps ever so slightly lopsided.

Recorded by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, the image is a heat map of the cosmos as it appeared only 370,000 years after the Big Bang, showing space speckled with faint spots from which galaxies would grow over billions of years.

Here are some interactives using the images:

Mapping the Early Universe is from The New York Times.

Planck satellite: Maps detail Universe’s ancient light
is from The BBC.

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