Planck scanning - Ecliptic, cartesian

The ring of sky which the Planck satellite scans at any one time is shown as a white ring. As it orbits the Sun, it maps out the sky, shown here as the sky as measured by the WMAP satellite (credit NASA/WMAP Science Team). The map is shown in Ecliptic coordinates, aligned with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and projected in a cartesian projection, meaning that the top and bottom of the map are stretched - this is why the ring, which is actually a circle, appears a bit square. Since the Planck satellite is orbiting the L2 point, the circle moves up and down slightly in this projects as it moves round the sky.

For more information see http://planck.cf.ac.uk/scanning

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• planck
• scanning
• cmb
• satellite
• galaxy
• ESA