The new Planck CMB map.

[Daddystu]

Here is a much better report on the findings than the BBC news site has;

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_reveals_an_almost_perfect_Universe

A new value for the hubble constant, age of the universe and matter/dark energy ratios. Plus - the universe may not be the same in all directions.

[jakeybob]

Also, this link has a nice graphic depicting the increase in resolution compared to WMAP.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=51554

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Thanks, that is a better summary than the BBC News article I read earlier today.

Up with matter! Down with dark energy!

[Jessun]

One article on the website of Astronomy Now on the subject made me wonder....

Here it is:

http://www.astronomy...n1303/21planck/

And here's a screen grab:

This is what it says:

"The ripples in the CMB grew along with the expansion of the Universe to form chains of galaxy clusters. By measuring the size of the ripples in the CMB compared to the size of the galaxy clusters today, it's possible to get an accurate handle on how fast the Universe is expanding, known as the Hubble Constant. WMAP measured it to be 69.32 kilometres per second per megaparsec, while Planck has refined that to 67.15 kilometres per second per megaparsec. What that means is that every million parsecs (where one parsec is 3.26 light years, so every 3,260,000 million light years) of space expands by 6,715 metres each second"

So the real number as stated is 67.15 km per second per mega parsec.

67.15 km is no doubt 67,150 m?

And 1 mega parsec is 1,000,000 parsec?

So how does that make 1 megaparsec 3,260,000,000,000 light years??? (3,260,000 million light years)

And how does 67.15km (67150m) turn into 6715m???

What am I missing in this number jungle...?

/Jesper

[jakeybob]

At first glance this looks like an unfortunate double typo to me. 1MPC should be 3.26 million LY, and 6,715m should be 67,150m.

What that means is that every million parsecs (where one parsec is 3.26 light years, so every 3,260,000 million light years) of space expands by 6,715 metres each second.

is a weird way of phrasing it, even if the numbers were correct. To be fair km/sec/MPc is barking mad, even as astronomical units go, so easy to slip up on

[Jessun]

At first glance this looks like an unfortunate double typo to me.

Complicated enough without typos...

I worked out that if you're an astronaut floating in space and you put a spanner an armslength away, and then rather patiently wait a billion years, the spanner will be 3mm further away. (Never trust my maths though!)

/Jesper

EDIT: I'm the last to trust my maths... Doing it all over again I come to the distance of 0.4 micrometer, not 3mm...

Give it a shot and see what you come up with! (An arm is 0.6m in my example)

[Jessun]

Hmm, or is it 4cm...

/Jesper

[ollypenrice]

Let's hope Marcus Chown updates his book Afterglow of Creation. It's a great read. I'd gladly buy a new edition to hear his take on the new data.

Olly