5 Cosmology with the Planck Satellite: from quantum foam to the cosmic web

Abstract

Sketched out in 1992, selected by the European Space Agency in 1996, and launched in 2009, the Planck satellite was shut off in 2013, after a measuring campaign that exceeded all expectations. The Planck collaboration delivered a first set of cosmological data and results in March 21 st 2013, and the full set in February 2015. A final “legacy” delivery is expected for mid-2017. The 2015 data delivery provides a “definitive” map of the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), its angular power spectrum together with their full statistical characterisation. The 2015 delivery also includes pioneering polarisation data. I describe results we obtained so far from these temperature and polarisation data, both in terms of content of the universe and of characteristics of the primordial fluctuations. This overview is entirely based on the published or submitted works of the Planck collaboration.