JODRELL Bank scientists have helped create Europe’s first-ever space mission to study the birth of the big bang.

Crucial instrumentation aboard the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft, set for a summer launch, was developed at the Lower Withington site.

Once released from a rocket in tomorrow’s launch (Thursday), the spacecraft – known as Planck – will search out "dying radiation embers" from the Universe’s beginnings.

And low frequency receivers pioneered at Jodrell Bank will help ensure noise interference does not affect its 18 month mission.

"It is going to map out the whole sky and the radio waves which are the fading glow of the big bang about 14billion years ago – it is the earliest light we are ever going to see," said Tim O’Brien, senior lecturer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.  It will be effectively looking back in time to see how things began and the seeds of the first stars and galaxies. We know there are black holes out there – there is one at the heart of the Milky Way – but to understand how galaxies are born, live and die, we have to be able to see them at different stages of their life. It takes so long (for the light to travel) that you cannot see a single star live its life."

The rocket will be launched from French Guyana and flown to a distance four times further away than the moon.

Jodrell Bank lead scientist Dr Richard Davis said: "The upcoming Planck launch is the culmination of many years work both at Jodrell Bank and at partner sites in Europe. Astronomers and cosmologists worldwide are very excited about the observations that we will be able to make once the satellite reaches its working location."