Oh My Herschel December 17, 2009
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Herschel stares into Aquila
Scientists have gathered in Madrid this week to discuss for the first time the data they have received from the new infrared telescope Herschel that was launched in May of this year. Some fantastic images have been produced as part of the first observing programmes, like the one above of an active star forming region in the constellation Aquila. The region was known as a ‘dark cloud’ – meaning that dust was blocking any visible or near-infrared radiation coming from its interior. Until Herschel came along, and switched on the lights. Observing at longer infrared wavelengths, the telescope is sensitive to radiation from cooler and dusty material, allowing it to peer into the cloud’s interior. The image, created from data from two of Herschel’s images, PACS and SPIRE, shows up to 700 dense pockets of cold and dusty material that may eventually condense into stars; around 100 of them have progressed to the protostellar stage where they begin to resemble a young forming star.
ESA has launched a new site to showcase the Herschel images. A little sparsely populated so far, but the first postings are very promising indeed.
Image credit: ESA and the SPIRE & PACS consortia, Ph. André (CEA Saclay) for the Gould’s Belt Key Programme Consortia
Star formation as seen by Herschel October 3, 2009
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The great images from Herschel continue to come in. This week ESA released the first image that combines data from two of its instruments, PACS and SPIRE.While each instrument has its own unique functionality, the true power of a multi-mode observatory like Herschel is often the ability the observe the same region of sky with several of its instruments simultaneously, to offer a richer view of the target than possible with a single instrument.
More success for Herschel July 11, 2009
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After the early sneak preview from the PACS instrument on board the recently launched Herschel infrared space telescope, more images have now been released from its other instruments, SPIRE and HIFI. The above image shows images taken with the IR imager and spectrometer SPIRE of nearby galaxy M74 at 250 micron. The amount of detail visible in the images is really great, particularly as all the image reconstruction software hasn’t even been optimised yet. We may be very used to seeing spectacularly detailed images from Hubble, but achieving these resolutions at Herschel’s far-infrared wavelengths is very new. (more…)
First light for Herschel June 21, 2009
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Doesn’t it seem like yesterday, that exciting day when two new astronomy satellites were blasted into space? There was Herschel, at 3.5-m the largest telescope ever launched into space, and Planck, the new cosmic miscrowave background explorer. We cheered, drank some champagne and settled into the wait until the data started coming in. Well, that day has arrived. This week ESA and the participating institutes released an early first light image from PACS, the Photodetector and Array Camera and Spectrometer, on board Herschel, taken during the telescope’s commissioning phase.
A big congrats to the Herschel telescope and instrument teams!
Update 11/07/09: Watch a video of the Herschel/PACS team as they receive the beautiful picture of M51 from the telescope, here. Great stuff!
Two more eyes in the sky May 16, 2009
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The launch went beautifully on Thursday, and soon astronomers will have two more eyes in the sky beaming down exciting new data. Herschel and Planck separated successfully from their ride, sent a signal back to mission control to confirm that all is well, and are now both under way to their dark orbits at L2.
The thing with launches is that there’s a lot of excitement and build-up, but when all goes well there’s really not much to say about it. They launched, yay! Now begins the important commissioning phase (planned to begin today for Herschel, on Monday for Planck), where all the functions of the telescope and the instruments, and their performance is checked out.
So here is a round-up of some media and bloggy coverage…
Big news stories from the BBC, Guardian, Volkskrant (in Dutch)
The official launch page at ESA has also been updated with latest news and some great videos and images.
Blog updates by Stuart, Andrew, Peter, Robert, Phil – for full astro-blog listings check out Spacebuzz for tags “Herschel” and “Planck”
News on the missions’ dedicated blogs (Herschel, Planck)
Image: ESA/S. Corvaja
