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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.
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!
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