Amazing, Giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust light up this panoramic view of the sky recorded by the European Space Agency's Planck telescope.

The space telescope was launched in May last year on a mission to survey the "cosmic microwave background" – ancient light left over from the big bang.



In September it began to reveal its first images showing strips of ancient light across the sky. Now it has revealed a full picture of the sky.

The image shows what is visible beyond the Earth to instruments that are sensitive to light at very long wavelengths.

When this work is completed, Planck will show us the most precise picture of the microwave background ever obtained, the ESA said.

The different colours represent minute differences in the temperature and density of matter across the sky. Somehow these small irregularities evolved into denser regions that became the galaxies of today.

Planck will continue to map the Universe and will produce four all-sky scans till its mission ends in 2012.