page_title: Planck (spacecraft)
section_title: Instruments
hierarchical_section_title: Planck (spacecraft) / Instruments
caption_attribution_description: English: Planck LFI 44GHz horn and front end chassis.
context_page_description: Planck was a space observatory operated by the European Space Agency from 2009 to 2013, which mapped the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background at microwave and infra-red frequencies, with high sensitivity and small angular resolution. The mission substantially improved upon observations made by the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Planck provided a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early Universe and the origin of cosmic structure. Since the end of its mission, Planck has defined the most precise measurements of several key cosmological parameters, including the average density of ordinary matter and dark matter in the Universe and the age of the universe.
  The project was started around 1996 and was initially called COBRAS/SAMBA: the Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropies. It was later renamed in honour of the German physicist Max Planck, who derived the formula for black-body radiation.
context_section_description: The spacecraft carries two instruments: the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI). Both instruments can detect both the total intensity and polarization of photons, and together cover a frequency range of nearly 830 GHz (from 30 to 857 GHz).  The cosmic microwave background spectrum peaks at a frequency of 160.2 GHz.
  Planck's passive and active cooling systems allow its instruments to maintain a temperature of −273.05 °C (−459.49 °F), or 0.1 °C above absolute zero. From August 2009, Planck was the coldest known object in space, until its active coolant supply was exhausted in January 2012.
  NASA played a role in the development of this mission and contributes to the analysis of scientific data.  Its Jet Propulsion Laboratory built components of the science instruments, including bolometers for the high-frequency instrument, a 20-kelvin cryocooler for both the low- and high-frequency instruments, and amplifier technology for the low-frequency instrument.
caption: LFI 44 GHz horn and front-end chassis
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