Observations of the CMB: Planck and beyond

Paolo de Bernardis
Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università "La Sapienza" di Roma

ABSTRACT:

In the framework of the current cosmological model, precision measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations represent an effective way to investigate the early and very early universe.

The Planck satellite, currently working from the Lagrangian point L2 of the sun-earth system, has demonstrated to operate with an unprecedented combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, and spectral coverage.

This will allow the best possible separation of foreground radiation and a clean extraction of small cosmological signals like the polarization of the CMB, secondary anisotropies, non gaussian fluctuations. Meanwhile, other experiments are being developed with the mission to reduce systematic effects.

We will describe the status of the Planck mission, focusing on key recent results, and the custom experimental strategies and new technologies developed to measure the B-modes of CMB polarization, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies, and possibly non gaussianity.