Cosmos-e'-Planck

Increasingly exquisite measurements of temperature fluctuations  and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background have been transformational for cosmology in the past 25 years.

I will review cosmology results from the Planck CMB space mission with emphasis on addressing the "Why Planck?” question. This milestone mission confirms an emerging 'standard model' of cosmology with high confidence,  including validation of the process of structure formation within the LCDM model, apart from pointing to constrained space of models of inflation.  The elaborate, ambitious nature of the mission has allowed it to definitively rule on important issues, including a recent `high stake’ claim from another experiment.  Interestingly, while all looks fine with the emergent standard cosmological model, there are some hints of possible violation of the cosmological principle —  a fundamental assumption of cosmology!!!