The Latest News from the Cosmos

On March 21, 2013, the most detailed map of the infant universe to date was publicly released, showing relic radiation from the Big Bang, imprinted when the universe was just 380,000 years old. This was the first release of cosmological data from the Planck satellite, a mission of the European space agency that was initiated in 1996 and involved hundreds of scientists in over thirteen countries. In this lecture, Matias Zaldarriaga, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, reviews the new results and explains where they fit in our broader understanding of the beginnings and evolution of the universe.