The first data set from Herschel-ATLAS has been released to the astronomical community. This represents the largest public release of Herschel data so far and will be a powerful data-set for studies of galaxy evolution. H-ATLAS have released images of a region of sky more than 60 times the area of the full moon (16 square degrees) …
Category archives: Mission News
Herschel science papers published
The first Herschel science papers have been published in a special issue of the scientific journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. A total of 152 papers, each around 4 pages long, are freely available on the Astronomy & Astrophysics Herschel Special Issue website, with six describing the mission and its instruments, and the rest describing scientific results. The results, many …
Herschel teams up with Rosetta
On 10th July, the Rosetta spacecraft will pass by the asteroid Lutetia at a distance of a mere 3162km. It will study the asteroid’s surface, dust environment, exosphere, magnetic field, mass and density. Because Rosetta is speeding past at 15km/s – on its way to a 2014 encounter with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko – it will only get a …
Herschel and Planck win Grand Prize
The teams behind Herschel and Planck have been awarded the “Grand Prix 2010” by the French Association for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAAF), to acknowledge their “outstanding space endeavours”. The prize was awarded on 9th June 2010 in Paris, and senior members of the teams behind both of these groundbreaking missions were there to collect the award on behalf of …
Herschel clocks up one year in space
At 13.12 GMT on 14 May 2009, an Ariane 5 rocket carrying two brand new space telescopes launched into space. The two telescopes were Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever launched, and Planck, which will make the most sensitive maps of early Universe over the whole sky. Herschel separated from the upper stages of the …
Hi-Five for HIFI!
After a number of months offline, the third of Herschel’s instruments is back online. HIFI, which is a high resolution spectrometer has recently been turned back on after being shut down by a fault in early August 2009. After months of effort to understand the problem and ensure that it does not happen again, the instrument …
First Science Results from Herschel!
Herschel scientists are meeting in Madrid to present the results from the Science Demonstration Phase of the mission. This is the phase of the mission where the satellite and its instruments are stretched to their full capabilities. A number of results involving the SPIRE instrument and astronomers from the UK have been presented. Professor Matt …
Seeing Between the lines: First spectra from SPIRE
Spectrometers on board all three Hershel instruments have been used to analyse the light from objects inside our galaxy and from other galaxies, producing some of the best measurements yet of atoms and molecules involved in the birth and death of stars. This includes the first results from the SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), which …
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A top invention of 2009
Alongside teleportation and the AIDS vaccine, the Herschel Space Observatory has been voted one of the greatest inventions of 2009 by Time magazine. Herschel is placed at number 7 in the list of 50 inventions, which also includes the Electric Eye and the Personal Carbon Footprint. Herschel’s position on this list is a tribute to the dedication and …
Herschel’s cameras combine to show the galaxy in a new light
Spectacular new images of interstellar material in our galaxy have been produced, using the UK-led SPIRE camera in tandem with Herschel’s other camera, PACS. The new pictures, made during the first trial run with the two instruments operating at the same time, have unveiled a small part of our Milky Way Galaxy as we have …
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