14 billion year of cosmic history in one year: the Planck-Mission presents its first results.

The "Planck Surveyor" satellite mission to study the Big Bang, 14 billion years ago, via measuring the cosmic microwave background has produced impressive results during its first year of operation: a catalogue with 15,000 celestial objects, 25 scientific papers, as well as the most precise measurement of the far infrared background, revealing star formation in the early universe. The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics developed software components for Planck and is heavily involved in the scientific interpretation of the mission data.