10-ஆம் வகுப்பு பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணை அறிவிப்பு மார்ச் 2017

10-ஆம் வகுப்பு படிக்கும் மாணவ, மா‌ணவிகளுக்கான பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணையை தேர்வுத்துறை இயக்கம் வெளியிட்டுள்ளது.

அதன்படி, 10-ஆம் வகுப்பிற்கான தேர்வு மார்ச் 8-ஆம் தேதி முதல் மார்ச் 30-ஆம் தேதி வரை நடைபெறும். தேர்வுகள் காலை 9.15 - பிற்பகல் 12.00 வரை நடைபெறும் என தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதன் விவரம் பின்வருமாறு:

Date	Day	Subjects
08.03.2017	Wednesday	Tamil Paper I
09.03.2017	Thursday	Tamil Paper II
14.03.2017	Tuesday	English Paper I
16.03.2017	Thursday	English Paper II
20.03.2017	Monday	Mathematics
23.03.2017	Thursday	Science
28.03.2017	Tuesday	Social Science
30.03.2017	Thursday	Optional Language

தேர்வுகள் குறித்த தகவல்கள் www.dge.tn.gov.in என்ற இணையதளத்தில் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

ப்ளஸ் 2 பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணை அறிவிப்பு மார்ச் 2017

ப்ளஸ் 2 வகுப்பு படிப்போருக்கான பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணையை தேர்வுத்துறை இயக்கம் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதன்படி, ப்ளஸ் 2 வகுப்பிற்கான தேர்வு மார்ச் 2-ஆம் தேதி முதல் மார்ச் 31-ஆம் தேதி வரை நடைபெறும். தேர்வுகள் காலை 10.15 - பிற்பகல் 1.15 வரை நடைபெறும் என தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதன் விவரம் பின்வருமாறு:

Date and Day	Subjects
02.03.2017 THURSDAY	LANGUAGE PAPER I
03.03.2017 FRIDAY	LANGUAGE PAPER II
06.03.2017 MONDAY	ENGLISH PAPER I
07.03.2017 TUESDAY	ÈNGLISH PAPER II
10.03.2017 FRIDAY	COMMERCE / HOME SCIENCE / GEOGRAPHY
13.03.2017 MONDAY	CHEMISTRY / ACCOUNTANCY
17.03.2017 FRIDAY	COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH / INDIAN CULTURE / COMPUTER SCIENCE / BIO-CHEMISTRY / ADVANCED LANGUAGE (TAMIL)
21.03.2017 TUESDAY	PHYSICS / ECONOMICS
24.03.2017 FRIDAY	ALL VOCATIONAL THEORY / POLITICAL SCIENCE / NURSING (General) / STATISTICS
27.03.2017 MONDAY	MATHEMATICS / ZOOLOGY / MICRO BIOLOGY / NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
31.03.2017 FRIDAY	BIOLOGY / HISTORY / BOTANY / BUSINESS MATHS

தேர்வுகள் குறித்த முழு தகவல்களும் www.dge.tn.gov.in என்ற இணையதளத்தில் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

சிபிஎஸ்இ 12-ஆம் வகுப்பு பொதுத்தேர்வு தேதி அறிவிப்பு மார்ச் 2017

சிபிஎஸ்இ பாடத்திட்டத்தில் படிக்கும் 12-ஆம் வகுப்பு படிக்கும் மாணவ, மா‌ணவிகளுக்கான பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணை வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதன்படி, 12-ஆம் வகுப்பிற்கான தேர்வு மார்ச் 9-ஆம் தேதி முதல் ஏப்ரல் 29-ஆம் தேதி வரை நடைபெறும். இந்த பொதுத்தேர்வை நாடு முழுவதும் 10 லட்சத்திற்கும் மேற்பட்டோர் எழுத உள்ளனர்.

தேர்வுகள் குறித்த அனைத்து தகவல்களும் www.cbse.nic.in என்ற இணையதளத்தில் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

சிபிஎஸ்இ 10-ஆம் வகுப்பு பொதுத்தேர்வு தேதி அறிவிப்பு மார்ச் 2017

சிபிஎஸ்இ பாடத்திட்டத்தில் படிக்கும் 10-ஆம் வகுப்பு படிப்போருக்கான பொதுத்தேர்வு கால அட்டவணை வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதன்படி, பத்தாம் வகுப்பிற்கான பொதுத்தேர்வு மார்ச் 9-ஆம் தேதி முதல் ஏப்ரல் 10-ஆம் தேதி வரை நடைபெறும். 10ஆம் வகுப்பு தேர்வை மட்டும் நாடு முழுவதும் 16 லட்சத்திற்கும் மேற்பட்ட மாணவ, மா‌ணவிகள் எழுதவுள்ளனர்.

தேர்வுகள் குறித்த முழு தகவல்களும் www.cbse.nic.in என்ற இணையதளத்தில் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

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Happy New Year!

Wishing all a joyful new year, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer us their views of Saturn and the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the top right of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Astronauts' marathon mission to repair Hubble Telescope

Astronauts resort to brute force on their mammoth spacewalk as they continue repairing the Hubble telescope..

Astronauts Start Hubble Repairs

A pair of spacewalking astronauts stepped outside Thursday to begin demanding repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope, a job made all the more dangerous because of the high, debris-ridden orbit. (May 14)

Cardiac Patients Take NASA Super Plastic to Heart

WASHINGTON -- A NASA technology that was developed for an aerospace high-speed research program is now part of an implantable device for heart failure patients.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., created an advanced aerospace resin, named Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide, or LaRC-SI. It is highly flexible, resistant to chemicals, and withstands extreme hot and cold temperatures. The "super plastic" was determined to be biologically inert, making it suitable for medical use, including implantable devices.

"One of the advantages of this material is that it lends itself to a variety of diverse applications, from mechanical parts and composites to electrical insulation and adhesive bonding," said Rob Bryant, a NASA Langley senior researcher and inventor of the material.

In July 2004, NASA licensed the patented insulation technology to Medtronic Inc., a Minneapolis-based medical technology company. Medtronic Inc. incorporated the material into its Attain Ability left-heart lead, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved.

The use of this NASA-developed material in a medical implant is the latest in a long line of medical applications that have benefited from NASA technology.

"Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide is an excellent example of how taxpayer investment in NASA materials research has resulted in a direct benefit beyond the aerospace sector by extending the quality of life through medical technology," Bryant said.

Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle is unable to pump effectively to meet the body's need for blood and oxygen. It is a chronic and progressive condition that affects more than five million Americans and more than 22 million individuals worldwide. Cardiac resynchronization therapy, or CRT, is designed to coordinate the contraction of the heart's two lower chambers and improve the heart's efficiency to increase blood flow to the body.

CRT devices, which are stopwatch-sized, are implanted into the chest and connected to the heart by leads, such as the Attain Ability left-heart lead. A lead is a special wire that delivers energy from a CRT to the heart muscle. Electrical impulses generated by CRTs resynchronize heartbeats and improve blood flow.

The NASA insulation material makes possible the compact and flexible design of Medtronic's CRT lead, one of the thinnest left-heart leads available. Placing a lead in the heart is widely recognized by physicians as the most challenging aspect of implanting CRT devices. The narrow design allows physicians to choose between different sites on the heart to deliver optimal therapy. The lead is delivered by an inner catheter, a feature that helps physicians place the lead directly in difficult-to-reach areas of the heart. Clinical studies in the U.S. and Canada showed physicians were successful in placing the Attain Ability lead 96.4 percent of the time.

The Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide was featured in Spinoff 2008 -- NASA's annual premier publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. For more than 40 years, the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program has facilitated the transfer of NASA technology to the private sector, benefiting global competition and the economy. Since 1976, Spinoff has featured 40 to 50 of these commercial products annually.

In 1995, R&D Magazine selected the resin for an R&D 100 award as one of the top 100 technical innovations of the year.

NASA Television is airing a Video File demonstrating the technology. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about Langley Research Center's Soluble Imide, visit:

http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/Advanced_Materials.html

and

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/hm_4.html

NASA Television to Provide HD Coverage of Space Shuttle Launch

NASA Television to Provide HD Coverage of Space Shuttle Launch

WASHINGTON -- NASA Television will provide live high definition coverage of Monday's scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

The NASA Television HD feed (Channel 105) will be available beginning Friday at 12 p.m., EDT, with live images from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch coverage begins Monday, May 11, at 8:30 a.m. Liftoff is slated for 2:01 p.m.

NASA TV Downlink Parameters are:
Uplink provider = Americom
Satellite = AMC 6
Transponder = 17C
72 Degrees West
Transmission Format: DVB-S
Downlink Frequency: 4040 MHz
Polarity: Vertical
FEC= 3/4
Data Rate= 36.860 MHz
Symbol Rate = 26.665 Ms/s

For NASA TV HD Programming:
HD Program = 105
Video PID = 82
AC-3 Audio PID = 238
MPEG-1 Layer II Audio PID =83

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space shuttle's STS-125 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

NASA's Spitzer Telescope Warms Up to New Career

WASHINGTON -- The primary mission of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is about to end after more than five and a half years of probing the cosmos with its keen infrared eye. Within about a week of May 12, the telescope is expected to run out of the liquid helium needed to chill some of its instruments to operating temperatures.

The end of the coolant will begin a new era for Spitzer. The telescope will start its "warm" mission with two channels of one instrument still working at full capacity. Some of the science explored by a warm Spitzer will be the same, and some will be entirely new.

"We like to think of Spitzer as being reborn," said Robert Wilson, Spitzer project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Spitzer led an amazing life, performing above and beyond its call of duty. Its primary mission might be over, but it will tackle new scientific pursuits, and more breakthroughs are sure to come."

Spitzer is the last of NASA's Great Observatories, a suite of telescopes designed to see the visible and invisible colors of the universe. The suite also includes NASA's Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Spitzer has explored, with unprecedented sensitivity, the infrared side of the cosmos, where dark, dusty and distant objects hide.

For a telescope to detect infrared light -- essentially heat -- from cool cosmic objects, it must have very little heat of its own. During the past five years, liquid helium has run through Spitzer's "veins," keeping its three instruments chilled to -456 degrees Fahrenheit (-271 Celsius), or less than 3 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest temperature theoretically attainable. The cryogen was projected to last as little as two and a half years, but Spitzer's efficient design and careful operations enabled it to last more than five and a half years.

Spitzer's new "warm" temperature is still quite chilly at -404 degrees Fahrenheit (-242 Celsius), much colder than a winter day in Antarctica when temperatures sometimes reach -75 degrees Fahrenheit (-59 Celsius). This temperature rise means two of Spitzer's instruments -- its longer wavelength multiband imaging photometer and its infrared spectrograph -- will no longer be cold enough to detect cool objects in space.

However, the telescope's two shortest-wavelength detectors in its infrared array camera will continue to function perfectly. They will still pick up the glow from a range of objects: asteroids in our solar system, dusty stars, planet-forming disks, gas-giant planets and distant galaxies. In addition, Spitzer still will be able to see through the dust that permeates our galaxy and blocks visible-light views.

"We will do exciting and important science with these two infrared channels," said Spitzer Project Scientist Michael Werner of JPL. Werner has been working on Spitzer for more than 30 years. "Our new science program takes advantage of what these channels do best. We're focusing on aspects of the cosmos that we still have much to learn about."

Since its launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer has made countless breakthroughs in astronomy. Observations of comets both near and far have established that the stuff of comets and planets is similar throughout the galaxy. Breathtaking photos of dusty stellar nests have led to new insights into how stars are born. And Spitzer's eye on the very distant universe, billions of light-years away, has revealed hundreds of massive black holes lurking in the dark.

Perhaps the most revolutionary and surprising Spitzer finds involve planets around other stars, called exoplanets. Exoplanets are, in almost all cases, too close to their parent stars to be seen from our Earthly point of view. Nevertheless, planet hunters continue to uncover them by looking for changes in the parent stars. Before Spitzer, everything we knew about exoplanets came from indirect observations such as these.

In 2005, Spitzer detected the first actual photons from an exoplanet. In a clever technique, now referred to as the secondary-eclipse method, Spitzer was able to collect the light of a hot, gaseous exoplanet and learn about its temperature. Further detailed spectroscopic studies later revealed more about the atmospheres, or "weather," on similar planets. More recently, Spitzer witnessed changes in the weather on a wildly eccentric gas exoplanet -- a storm of colossal proportions brewing up in a matter of hours before quickly settling down.

"Nobody had any idea Spitzer would be able to directly study exoplanets when we designed it," Werner said. "When astronomers planned the first observations, we had no idea if they would work. To our amazement and delight, they did."

These are a few of Spitzer's achievements during the past five and a half years. Data from the telescope are cited in more than 1,500 scientific papers. And scientists and engineers expect the rewards to keep on coming during Spitzer's golden years.

Some of Spitzer's new pursuits include refining estimates of Hubble's constant, or the rate at which our universe is stretching apart; searching for galaxies at the edge of the universe; assessing how often potentially hazardous asteroids might impact Earth by measuring the sizes of asteroids; and characterizing the atmospheres of gas-giant planets expected to be discovered soon by NASA's Kepler mission. As was true during the cold Spitzer mission, these and the other programs are selected through a competition in which scientists from around the world are invited to participate.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, and Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. support mission and science operations. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built Spitzer's infrared array camera; the instrument's principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. built Spitzer's infrared spectrograph; its principal investigator is Jim Houck of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. and the University of Arizona in Tucson, built the multiband imaging photometer for Spitzer; its principal investigator is George Rieke of the University of Arizona.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

and

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer

NASA Wins Two Webby Awards for Internet Excellence

WASHINGTON -- NASA has received two Webby awards for excellence on the Internet. NASA's main Web site, http://www.nasa.gov, won the People's Voice award for best government Web site. The Cassini mission Web site, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, received a Webby award for best science site.

The People's Voice award is the second for NASA's Web site, which also won in 2003. More than 500,000 people cast votes this year.

"We're extremely happy to be honored by the Internet community this way," said Brian Dunbar, the content manager for http://www.nasa.gov at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We've always tried to focus the site on giving the public what they're looking for in an engaging and compelling way. Combined with some of the highest customer-satisfaction ratings in the government, this award tells us we're on the right track."

Judges from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Webbys, selected the Cassini site for the top honor in the science category.

"The Cassini Web site is the door to the science and technology of the mission to Saturn, contained in hundreds of thousands of pages," said Alice Wessen, manager of Cassini public engagement at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The site houses all the latest news, science findings and images Cassini returns as it orbits Saturn. The public can see every picture within eight hours after it's beamed down from the spacecraft."

NASA's Web site, which received 120 million visits in 2008, offers the public the latest news, mission coverage and multimedia from the agency's scientific research, technology development and exploration efforts. Visitors can surf thousands of images from throughout the universe, watch live video from the International Space Station or read more than a dozen blogs written by agency employees.

In the last year, the NASA Web team has expanded its presence into social media, creating an official NASA channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/nasatelevision, multiple Twitter feeds led by @NASA, and mission pages on Facebook and MySpace. Since NASA astronaut Mike Massimino began twittering via @Astro_Mike on April 3, he has gained more than 175,000 followers. NASA was recognized in February with a Shorty award for its @marsphoenix Twitter presence, which was written in the "voice" of the spacecraft. For a list of NASA missions providing updates on social media Web sites, visit http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate.

NASA's web team also was among the honorees for Rich Media/Advertising for its multimedia commemoration of NASA's 50th anniversary, http://www.nasa.gov/50years. The feature, hosted by the robot Automa, includes an interactive news conference with the original Mercury astronauts, music from across the decades and an "appearance" by renowned astronomer Carl Sagan.

On Feb. 2, NextGov.com cited NASA's popular homepage as one of five federal government agencies employing best practices in Web 2.0. Socialgovernment.com also recognized the agency as among the best in federal government using Twitter, YouTube and social media.

NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Briefings for Press

WASHINGTON -- NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese will brief the news media about the agency's fiscal year 2010 budget at 2:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 7. The news conference will take place in NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Scolese will be joined by NASA Comptroller David Schurr. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Internet homepage. Reporters at NASA Headquarters will be able to ask questions.

To watch the budget news conference on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

After the overview briefing on NASA's fiscal year 2010 budget, the associate administrators of the mission directorates each will hold a teleconference to discuss the budget's impact on their specific area.

The teleconference schedule is (all times Eastern):

Thursday, May 7
4 p.m. -- Exploration Systems (phone: 877-716-4287 or 312-470-7379, pass code: Exploration)
5 p.m. -- Science (phone: 888-398-6118 or 312-470-7475, pass code: Science)
6 p.m. -- Space Operations (phone: 888-790-4541 or 773-799-3536, pass code: Space Operations)

Friday, May 8
9 a.m. -- Aeronautics (phone: 888-455-7155 or 415-228-4614, pass code: Aeronautics)

Each teleconference is scheduled to last 50 minutes. Reporters may join the teleconference of their choice by dialing the telephone number and using the pass code listed above. The number of available telephone lines is limited.

Live audio of the budget teleconferences will stream online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Replays of each mission directorate's teleconference will be available until May 22. Replay numbers are:

Exploration Systems: 800-879-5816 or 203-369-3565
Science: 800-925-0568 or 203-369-3866
Space Operations: 888-566-0435 or 402-998-0605
Aeronautics: 888-566-0439 or 203-369-3045

The NASA budget and supporting information will be available at 1:30 p.m., May 7, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/budget

NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Briefings for Press

WASHINGTON -- NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese will brief the news media about the agency's fiscal year 2010 budget at 2:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 7. The news conference will take place in NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Scolese will be joined by NASA Comptroller David Schurr. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Internet homepage. Reporters at NASA Headquarters will be able to ask questions.

To watch the budget news conference on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

After the overview briefing on NASA's fiscal year 2010 budget, the associate administrators of the mission directorates each will hold a teleconference to discuss the budget's impact on their specific area.

The teleconference schedule is (all times Eastern):

Thursday, May 7
4 p.m. -- Exploration Systems (phone: 877-716-4287 or 312-470-7379, pass code: Exploration)
5 p.m. -- Science (phone: 888-398-6118 or 312-470-7475, pass code: Science)
6 p.m. -- Space Operations (phone: 888-790-4541 or 773-799-3536, pass code: Space Operations)

Friday, May 8
9 a.m. -- Aeronautics (phone: 888-455-7155 or 415-228-4614, pass code: Aeronautics)

Each teleconference is scheduled to last 50 minutes. Reporters may join the teleconference of their choice by dialing the telephone number and using the pass code listed above. The number of available telephone lines is limited.

Live audio of the budget teleconferences will stream online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Replays of each mission directorate's teleconference will be available until May 22. Replay numbers are:

Exploration Systems: 800-879-5816 or 203-369-3565
Science: 800-925-0568 or 203-369-3866
Space Operations: 888-566-0435 or 402-998-0605
Aeronautics: 888-566-0439 or 203-369-3045

The NASA budget and supporting information will be available at 1:30 p.m., May 7, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/budget

Herschel and Planck Missions to Study Cosmos Share Ride to Space

WASHINGTON -- Two missions to study the cosmos, the Herschel and Planck spacecraft, are scheduled to blast into space May 14 aboard the same Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The European Space Agency, or ESA, leads both missions with significant participation from NASA.

"The missions are quite different, but they'll hitch a ride to space together," said Ulf Israelsson, NASA project manager for both Herschel and Planck. "Launch processing is moving along smoothly. Both missions' instruments have completed their final checkouts, and the spacecrafts' thruster tanks have been fueled."

Israelsson is with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif., which contributed key technology to both missions. NASA team members will play an important role in data analysis and science operations.

The Herschel observatory has the unique ability to peek into the dustiest and earliest stages of planet, star and galaxy growth. The spacecraft's astronomy mirror -- about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) in diameter -- is the largest ever launched into space. The mirror will collect longer-wavelength light in the infrared and submillimeter range -- light never before investigated by an astronomy mission.

"We haven't had ready access to the wavelengths between infrared and microwaves before, in part because Earth's atmosphere blocks them from reaching the ground," said Paul Goldsmith, the NASA project scientist for Herschel at JPL. "Because our views were so limited before, we can expect a vast range of serendipitous discoveries, from new molecules in interstellar space to new types of objects."

The coolest objects in the universe, such as dusty, developing stars and galaxies, appear as dark blobs when viewed with visible-light telescopes. As a result, astronomers do not know what is happening inside them. However, at longer wavelengths in the far-infrared and submillimeter range, cool objects shine brightly. Herschel will detect light from objects as cold as -263 degrees Celsius, or 10 Kelvin, which is 10 degrees above the coldest temperature theoretically attainable. Onboard liquid helium, which is expected to last more than three and a half years, will chill one of Herschel's detectors to a frosty 0.3 Kelvin.

Planck will answer fundamental questions about how the universe came to be and how it will change in the future. It will look back in time to just 400,000 years after our universe exploded into existence nearly 14 billion years ago in the event known as the Big Bang. The mission will spend at least 15 months making the most precise measurements yet of light at microwave wavelengths across our entire sky, including what is called the cosmic microwave background. This light is from the primordial soup of particles that eventually evolved to become our modern-day universe. The light has traveled about 14 billion years to reach us, and, in that time, has cooled and stretched to longer wavelengths because space is expanding.

"The cosmic microwave background shows us the universe directly at age 400,000 years, not the movie, not the historical novel, but the original photons," said Charles Lawrence, NASA project scientist for Planck at JPL. "Planck will give us the clearest view ever of this baby universe, showing us the results of physical processes in the first brief moments after the Big Bang, and the starting point for the formation of stars and galaxies."

Planck will be cold too. One of its instruments will be cooled to just 0.1 Kelvin. Innovative "cryocooler" technology, developed in part by JPL, will chill the instruments.

Shortly after launch, Planck and Herschel will separate from the rocket and follow different trajectories to the second Lagrangian point of our solar system, a point in space 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.

Herschel and Planck are both ESA missions with important participation from NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office and Planck Project Office are both based at JPL. A consortium of European-led institutes provided science instruments for Herschel. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments and both of Planck's science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the U.S. astronomical community. NASA, U.S. and European Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data.

More information about the Herschel mission is available online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/herschel

More information about the Planck mission is available online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/planck