Café & Kosmos - A look back at cosmic history

The first light in the cosmos did not come from stars - it dates back to a time some 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the matter had cooled enough for the universe to become transparent. The next Café & Kosmos on 14. March 2011 is dedicated to this oldest image of the universe: What does this so called "cosmic microwave background" tell us about the universe as a whole and about structure formation?

Dr. Torsten Enßlin from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics will present new observational data obtained with the Planck satellite launched in May 2009. The discussion will not only cover the tiny fluctuations in this background radiation but also the many objects - basically everything - situated between us and the background and thus casting a "shadow". At the beginning of January, the Planck collaboration presented a catalogue of 15,000 celestial objects such as galaxy clusters, quasars, radio galaxies, near-by galaxies and galactic dust clouds.

The Café & Kosmos series of discussions is organised jointly by ESO, the Excellence Cluster Universe and the Max-Planck Institutes for Physics, Astrophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics. The discussions take place on the first Monday of each month (in March one week later because of Rosenmontag) at Café Jasmin in Munich. After a brief introduction the scientists take questions from the audience and discuss current issues from the cosmos.

Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German.