Planck Science is the third of a set of three educational films (see http://www.lightcurvefilms.com/beyond-the-red/) about the new European Space Agency’s science missions Herschel and Planck, recently launched. In Planck Science astrophysicist Vincent Icke (Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands) explains how we can study the very early stages of the Universe and what the new Planck mission will add to that research. For his explanations he uses several simple and very illuminating experiments. The music is from the album Music of the Spheres by William Zeitler. The instrument is a glass armonica, related to the experiment performed in the film (see Links below).

Links: Herschel Mission: http://sci.esa.int/herschel Planck Mission: http://sci.esa.int/planck Prof. Vincent Icke: http://strw.leidenuniv.nl/~icke/ William Zeitler: http://williamzeitler.com

Production: The educational DVD with all three films was produced by Lightcurve Films for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German 'Wissenschaft in der Schule'. It was included in a special educational issue of the Sterne und Weltraum magazine about the Herschel and Planck missions. © ESA 2008; publication authorised by ESA.