Those are among the revelations this week from the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope mission. Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley Livermore Laboratory and UC Santa Barbara are among the members of the U.S. team participating in the mission.
A March 21 NASA news conference revealed an age of 13.82 billion years for the universe. Its contents include less dark energy and more matter — both dark and ordinary — than previously indicated. Dark matter is an invisible substance that only can be seen through the effects of its gravity, while dark energy is pushing our universe apart. The nature of both remains mysterious.
Planck's sky map, based on the mission's first 15.5 months of all-sky observations, reveals tiny temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, ancient light that has traveled for billions of years from the very early universe to reach us. The patterns of light represent the seeds of galaxies and clusters of galaxies we see around us today.
Complete results from Planck, which still is scanning the skies, will be released in 2014.
