The largest structures in the Universe as revealed by the Planck satellite
ESA-Planck web release
ESA's Planck satellite is currently producing
exceptional images in the millimeter waveband as part of its on-going
all-sky survey. These images are allowing the discovery of new
examples of the largest structures in the Universe: clusters and
super-clusters of galaxies. Such observations are possible due to the
detection of the photons from the cosmic microwave background (CMB),
the luminous echo of the Big Bang, the properties of which are
slightly modified when they cross clusters and super-clusters due to a
process called the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. For the first time,
this effect has been detected in nine different frequencies in the
direction of a super-cluster of galaxies, allowing the first-ever
discovery of this type of object via the SZ effect.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=47692