A striking image showing the ghost of the Big Bang has been captured by a new space telescope.

The Planck satellite was launched by the European Space Agency in May 2009 to study the early universe.

It is designed to scan the sky with instruments sensitive to nine different bands of normally invisible microwave light.

Picking up cosmic microwaves makes it possible to see the "afterglow" of radiation produced by the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe around 14 billion years ago.

Known as the Cosmic Microwave Background, it contains information that can help scientists piece together what happened when the universe began.

The Planck image shows the main disc of the Milky Way galaxy, the Sun's starry "home", with the yellow-mottled CMB above and below it.

The radiation was released as the first atoms were forming, just 400,000 years after the Big Bang brought matter, space and time into existence.

David Parker, director of space science and exploration at the UK Space Agency, said: "Planck has 'painted' us its first spectacular picture of the universe. This single image captures both our own cosmic backyard - the Milky Way galaxy that we live in - but also the subtle imprint of the Big Bang from which the whole universe emerged."

The image shows dust strewn throughout the galaxy in blue, with a red band across the centre showing hot regions.