Topic: It’s a Dusty Universe Out There

[sam]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/03/17/its-a-dusty-universe-out-there/

The primary goal of the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite is to provide a map of the cosmic microwave background with unprecedented precision. But along the way, you have to take into account that there is stuff in between us and the farthest edges of the universe — in particular, there’s all sorts of dust here in our home galaxy. You can even become famous just studying dust; one of the most highly cited papers in all of astrophysics is a 1997 map of galactic dust.

[Clive]

Wow!  It never ceases to amaze me how different our galaxy appears at different wavelengths.  I don't think I've seen it in the microwave band before but it seems the best yet!  What is particularly striking is all the dust above (and probably below) the galactic plane.   It's crazy!   

[sam]

yeah, lovely!