Royal Astronomical Society recognition for SPIRE instrument

The Royal Astronomy Society (RAS) has awarded its 2014 Group Achievement Award to the team behind the Herschel Space Observatory’s SPIRE instrument. The award represents recognition by the astronomical community of the outstanding success of the SPIRE instrument, which observed the Universe at far infrared wavelengths, a few hundred times longer than the wavelengths of …

SPIRE instrument wins Sir Arthur Clarke award

The team behind Herschel’s SPIRE instrument has been awarded the 2013 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for academic study and research. SPIRE is one of three instruments on Herschel, which was launched on 14 May 2009 and operated until the end of its scientific mission on 29 April 2013. The award is in recognition of the scientific achievements of the SPIRE instrument, …

Herschel loses its cool

The Herschel Space Observatory has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant, after three and a half years of scientific observations. Using Herschel data, astronomers have already made ground-breaking discoveries about the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and planets. But this has only scratched the surface, and there is far more still to come …