In this age of technological revolution new satellites and observatories are being launched every year. And usually one of the first tasks undertaken is what is known as an all sky survey. In essence, the observatory takes a quick view of the entire sky -- or at least the entire sky that is available to it in the case of ground based observatories. These surveys are good for getting a general view of what the Universe looks like in the observatory's frequency band, as well as potentially identifying previously unknown sources.
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently completed an all sky survey using the new Planck microwave observatory, covering a frequency range of 30 GHz to 857 GHz. The bright central band is our very own Milky Way Galaxy, surrounded by "warm" gas and dust. Also, dotted throughout the image are other galaxies and black holes.
Much of the light (aside from that coming from out galaxy) is residual heat from the event that created it all -- the big bang. That makes this study in particular very important. The more the know about the microwave background the better we understand the Universe in general. Anyway, enjoy the image of the week.
Image Credit: ESA
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