The space race is over, but Planck (and Herschel) seem to have won the Grand Prix in any event:

See http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/SEMARKPK2AG_0.html

ESA has made a new press release highlighting Planck's ability to investigate star formation:

Press Release

ESA has issued a press release with some pictures of Galactic emission from our Galaxy. Check it out here.

I went to one of our so-called 'CTP' meetings last week in Cambridge. I don't get to many. 'CTP' is an odd acronym -- the 'C' is the symbol we use for sky power spectra, ant eht 'T' and the 'P' stand for 'temperature' and 'polarization'.

Since the meetings are supposed to be work sessions, we all bring our computers and try to act antisocial:



A couple of colleagues kept asking what sort of bizarre meeting this was, since whenever they went by the room, nobody seemed to be talking.

I only got to sneak away once, to see the Wipple Museum of the History of science. But they've got a telescope made by Herschel, after whom our sister satellite is named:

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and I did get a picture of the "Mathematical Bridge":
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I always wonder why the French and the English pretend to hate each other so much:
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