WorldWide Telescope WWT Web Client
This viewer was developed using the HTML5 embedded web control for WorldWide Telescope, originally developed by Microsoft Research, but now transitioning to an open source project.
Special thanks to Ron Gilchrist and Jonathan Fay for adapting the web version to enable the special features used here.
Coordinate conversions using Astronomical Coordinate Calculator written by Robert Martin Ayers.
Planck Dust & Gas
A composite view of our Milky Way displays a combination of cool dust, gas and charged particles. Red displays the thermal glow of dust, seen to fill almost all of the sky. Yellow traces carbon monoxide (CO) gas, found in the densest clouds of gas and dust. Fast-moving clouds of free electrons are shown in regions of hot gas (green) and spiraling through the galaxy's magnetic fields (blue).
Planck Thermal Dust
Our Milky Way galaxy is filled with sooty particles of dust that are cold (tens of degrees above absolute zero) but still radiate in the infrared and microwave parts of the light spectrum. The fainter structures filling the sky are relatively close to our sun, while the brighter, narrower band along the galactic plane traces out the most distant parts of our galaxy.
Planck Spinning Dust
Microscopic dust particles floating in interstellar space are not static, but spin around like tops due to collisions with other atoms and molecules. This rotation generates a characteristic kind of light that has been detected and measured by the Planck mission.
Planck Molecular Gas (CO)
The glow from gas molecules, primarily carbon monoxide (CO), is concentrated along the mid-plane of the Milky Way. It is found in the densest clumps of gas and dust which fuel the formation of new stars.
Planck Ionized Gas (free-free)
Some regions in our galaxy are filled with gas, heated by the radiation of hot, young stars, where the electrons have been stripped away from the atoms. Such a hot soup of charged particles generates light as the charged particles interact with one another through their electric fields. This glow, sometimes called 'free-free' emission due to the free electrons and protons, highlights areas around newly formed stars.
Planck Synchrotron (non-thermal)
Fast-moving electrons become trapped by the magnetic field running through our Milky Way galaxy. As they spiral around the lines of magnetic force they emit a characteristic type of light known as 'synchrotron radiation.' Past supernova explosions have ejected vast clouds of electrons moving nearly at the speed of light, supplying the source for this magnetically generated glow.
Planck Lensing (Mass)
The distribution of matter throughout the universe is shown in this image generated from analysis of the light from the cosmic microwave background. Brighter areas show where the mass is greatest. Astronomers have calculated this distribution by analyzing how the gravity of stars, dust, gas and dark matter affect the light passing through it from the most distant limb of the observable universe.
Planck CMB
This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected by the Planck mission. The ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, was imprinted on the sky when the universe was 370,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today.
WMAP CMB
Prior to Planck, our best map of the cosmic microwave background came from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in 2003.
Digitized Sky Survey (Visible)
The night sky as seen in visible light is displayed from photographic plates obtained from observatories in both hemispheres of Earth. We primarily see the light of stars and galaxies. Here, dust clouds -- which glow brightly at longer wavelengths of light -- merely obscure our view of more distant areas of the Milky Way.
WISE All Sky (Infrared)
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mapped out the entire sky in infrared light during its primary mission from 2009 to 2010. The light from stars is seen in blue, while greens and reds trace out the glow of dust clouds. This is a low-resolution composite of WISE observations.
Spitzer GLIMPSE 360 (Infrared)
The most detailed infrared view of our Milky Way galaxy was obtained by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission and its GLIMPSE project. This narrow strip of sky covers most of our galaxy which, from our edge-on perspective, forms a ring around the sky.
Planck Dust & Gas
A composite view of our Milky Way displays a combination of cool dust, gas and charged particles. Red displays the thermal glow of dust, seen to fill almost all of the sky. Yellow traces carbon monoxide (CO) gas, found in the densest clouds of gas and dust. Fast-moving clouds of free electrons are shown in regions of hot gas (green) and spiraling through the galaxy's magnetic fields (blue).
Planck Thermal Dust
Our Milky Way galaxy is filled with sooty particles of dust that are cold (tens of degrees above absolute zero) but still radiate in the infrared and microwave parts of the light spectrum. The fainter structures filling the sky are relatively close to our sun, while the brighter, narrower band along the galactic plane traces out the most distant parts of our galaxy.
Planck Spinning Dust
Microscopic dust particles floating in interstellar space are not static, but spin around like tops due to collisions with other atoms and molecules. This rotation generates a characteristic kind of light that has been detected and measured by the Planck mission.
Planck Molecular Gas (CO)
The glow from gas molecules, primarily carbon monoxide (CO), is concentrated along the mid-plane of the Milky Way. It is found in the densest clumps of gas and dust which fuel the formation of new stars.
Planck Ionized Gas (free-free)
Some regions in our galaxy are filled with gas, heated by the radiation of hot, young stars, where the electrons have been stripped away from the atoms. Such a hot soup of charged particles generates light as the charged particles interact with one another through their electric fields. This glow, sometimes called 'free-free' emission due to the free electrons and protons, highlights areas around newly formed stars.
Planck Synchrotron (non-thermal)
Fast-moving electrons become trapped by the magnetic field running through our Milky Way galaxy. As they spiral around the lines of magnetic force they emit a characteristic type of light known as 'synchrotron radiation.' Past supernova explosions have ejected vast clouds of electrons moving nearly at the speed of light, supplying the source for this magnetically generated glow.
Planck Lensing (Mass)
The distribution of matter throughout the universe is shown in this image generated from analysis of the light from the cosmic microwave background. Brighter areas show where the mass is greatest. Astronomers have calculated this distribution by analyzing how the gravity of stars, dust, gas and dark matter affect the light passing through it from the most distant limb of the observable universe.
Planck CMB
This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected by the Planck mission. The ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, was imprinted on the sky when the universe was 370,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today.
WMAP CMB
Prior to Planck, our best map of the cosmic microwave background came from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in 2003.
Digitized Sky Survey (Visible)
The night sky as seen in visible light is displayed from photographic plates obtained from observatories in both hemispheres of Earth. We primarily see the light of stars and galaxies. Here, dust clouds -- which glow brightly at longer wavelengths of light -- merely obscure our view of more distant areas of the Milky Way.
WISE All Sky (Infrared)
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mapped out the entire sky in infrared light during its primary mission from 2009 to 2010. The light from stars is seen in blue, while greens and reds trace out the glow of dust clouds. This is a low-resolution composite of WISE observations.
Spitzer GLIMPSE 360 (Infrared)
The most detailed infrared view of our Milky Way galaxy was obtained by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission and its GLIMPSE project. This narrow strip of sky covers most of our galaxy which, from our edge-on perspective, forms a ring around the sky.
ESA's Planck mission, in which NASA plays an important role, has made sensitive measurements of the entire sky at microwave and millimeter wavelengths of light. The goal is to see the faintest fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) glow of the universe at its earliest observable state.
In order to tease out the faint CMB signal, astronomers had to understand all of the foreground light coming from everything else in the universe, dominated by the complex structures within our own Milky Way galaxy. These galactic features include different components of dust, gas and charged particles.
Using this viewer, you can compare the various components of the sky derived from Planck observations, as well as some other all-sky datasets. Select foreground and background layers using the pop-up menus, and use the slider to cross-fade between them. Captions will update as you make new selections.
Read the entire news release and view all images: Planck Mission Explores the History of Our Universe
Download the planck.wtml collection file to use with the WorldWide Telescope desktop client.