Map of the Milky Way galaxy made using data from the Planck satellite, with different colours depicting several different types of gas, plasma and dust. Constructed from observations made at microwave and millimeter wavelengths of light, which are longer than our eyes can detect.
At the end of its mission in October 2013, the Planck Satellite operated by the European Space Agency was put into a heliocentric orbit and passivated to prevent it from endangering any future missions. The final deactivation command was sent to Planck in October 2013.
Results from an analysis of Planck ’s full mission were made public on 1 December 2014 at a conference in Ferrara, Italy and a full set of papers detailing the mission results were released in February 2015.
More details here: http://www.space.com/28570-planck-satellite-brings-early-universe-into-focus.html
Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-CALTECH
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