Sara Ricciardi

A full press release (in Italian) related to this news is available on Media Inaf.

How to distil a dozen or so of cosmological parameters out of Planck maps? Extracting clean power spectra from tenth of terabytes of data — a jungle of signals and noise where contributions from background and foregrounds are deeply intertwined — is a real challenge. It requires a complex pipeline: a sequence of algorithms able to carry out component separation both on temperature and on polarization maps. Moreover, during the whole process, error propagation has to be carefully taken into account. The good news is that such a pipeline now exists: it has been designed and thoroughly tested by a team of scientists led by Sara Ricciardi (IASF-BO) and Anna Bonaldi (OA Padova). Their work has just been published on Monthly Notices.

[Source: ESA - Italian Press Release on www.media.inaf.it]

On 01 April 2010, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) has decided to present the 2010 Zeldovich Medal for COSPAR Scientific Commission E (Research in Astrophysics from Space) to Dr. Vito Sguera (INAF IASF-BO). The Zeldovich Medal is given to young scientists who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in their field of research. Zeldovich medals are conferred by COSPAR and the Russian Academy of Sciences and honor the memory of the distinguished astrophysicist Academician Yakov B. Zeldovich. The presentation of the award will take place at the inaugural ceremony of the 38th COSPAR scientific assembly in Bremen (19 July 2010).

Planck image of a region in the Orion Nebula

New images from ESA’s Planck space observatory reveal the forces driving star formation and give astronomers a way to understand the complex physics that shape the dust and gas in our Galaxy.

Star formation takes place hidden behind veils of dust but that doesn’t mean we can’t see through them. Where optical telescopes see only black space, Planck’s microwave eyes reveal myriad glowing structures of dust and gas. Now, Planck has used this ability to probe two relatively nearby star-forming regions in our Galaxy.

(News source: European Space Agency. An Italian version, with an interview to Reno mandolesi, Principal Investigator of Planck LFI, is available on www.media.inaf.it)

New images from ESA's Planck mission reveal details of the structure of the coldest regions in our Galaxy. Filamentary clouds predominate, connecting the largest to the smallest scales in the Milky Way. These images are a scientific by-product of a mission which will ultimately provide the sharpest picture ever of the early Universe.

ESA's Planck microwave observatory – the first European mission designed to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - has begun the second of four sky surveys, which will ultimately provide the most detailed information yet about the size, mass, age, geometry, composition and fate of the Universe. Although the primary goal of Planck is to map the CMB, by surveying the entire sky with an unprecedented combination of frequency coverage, angular resolution, and sensitivity, Planck will also provide valuable data for a broad range of studies in astrophysics. This is clearly demonstrated by new Planck images, published today, which trace cold dust in our Galaxy and reveal the large-scale structure of the interstellar medium filling the Milky Way.