Planckpre-launch status: ThePlanckmission

Abstract

The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, launched on 14 May 2009, is the third-generation space experiment in the field of cosmic microwave background (CMB) research. It will image the anisotropies of the CMB over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity ( ΔT T ∼ 2 × 10 −6 ) and angular resolution (∼5 arcmin). Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to many fundamental cosmological problems and will test current theories of the early evolution of the Universe and the origin of structure. It will also address a wide range of areas of astrophysical research related to the Milky Way as well as external galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The ability of Planck to measure polarization across a wide frequency range (30−350 GHz), with high precision and accuracy, and over the whole sky, will provide unique insight, not only into specific cosmological questions, but also into the properties of the interstellar medium. This paper is part of a series which describes the technical capabilities of the Planck scientific payload. It is based on the knowledge gathered during the on-ground calibration campaigns of the major subsystems, principally its telescope and its two scientific instruments, and of tests at fully integrated satellite level. It represents the best estimate before launch of the technical performance that the satellite and its payload will achieve in flight. In this paper, we summarise the main elements of the payload performance, which is described in detail in the accompanying papers. In addition, we describe the satellite performance elements which are most relevant for science, and provide an overview of the plans for scientific operations and data analysis.

Consistency check ofΛCDMphenomenology

“…The increase in maximum likelihood can be attributed to better fits of the CMB anisotropy data on all scales and to a smaller extent also to better fits in distance measures. We therefore expect future CMB data from, e.g., the Planck mission [94] to yield more decisive constraints on our modifications (cf., e.g., [95]). The gISW data sets counteract this trend in favor of the ÃCDM model and when removed, we obtain Á 2 max ' À7 and h " Li s ' 11 for the C model.…”

Future constraints on neutrino isocurvature perturbations in the curvaton scenario

“…The Planck satellite [12,13], launched in May 2009, is currently measuring the CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations with unprecedented precision (ÁT=T $ 2 Â 10 À6 ) over the whole sky and down to very small angular scales ($5 0 ). Planck measurements, planned to be publicly released to the scientific community in January 2013, will significantly improve the determination of cosmological parameters and will allow to test further the ÃCDM paradigm.…”

“…The aim of the present paper is to assess the capability of future CMB experiments like Planck [12,13], SPIDER [14] and CMBPol [15] to constrain simultaneously the amplitude of isocurvature perturbations in the neutrino component and the extra energy density associated to the neutrino chemical potential. The bounds can then be translated into constraints on the neutrino chemical potential to temperature ratio i (i ¼ e, , ) and the corresponding perturbation amplitudes.…”

Application of XFaster power spectrum and likelihood estimator to Planck

“…The Planck satellite (Planck Blue Book 2005;Tauber et al 2010) is a full-sky experiment with beams ranging in size from 30 to 5 arcmin. The low-frequency instrument (LFI) covers 30, 44 and 70 GHz; the high-frequency instrument (HFI) covers 100, 143, 216, 353, 545 and 857 GHz.…”