ESA's Herschel and Planck space telescopes

[Rick]

Europe's Herschel space observatory is set to become one of the most powerful tools ever to study the Universe.

The "first light" data from its three instruments demonstrates a remarkable capability even though their set-up is still not complete.

Galaxy images released on Friday by the European Space Agency show detail previously unseen in the objects.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8143447.stm

[mickw]

The recently launched Herschel Space Telescope has just returned glowing pictures of our own Milky Way galaxy in infrared light.

The European Space Agency mission (with contributions from NASA) lifted off in May on a quest to observe the universe in long-wavelength infrared light. The telescope used two instruments simultaneously to snap the new Milky Way photos in five different ranges, or "colors," of infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes.

"Herschel's infrared vision lets us sense the feeble heat from some of the coldest objects in the cosmos," said Paul Goldsmith, the project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The new images, taken during the observatory's testing phase, reveal new details of a region of the Milky Way near the dense plane of the galactic disk. In this region large clouds of gas and dust are giving birth to hordes of new stars.

More:   http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091002-herschel-galaxy.html

[mickw]

The death throes of the biggest star known to science have been observed by Europe's new space telescope, Herschel.

The observatory, launched in May, has subjected VY Canis Majoris, to a detailed spectroscopic analysis.
It has allowed Herschel to identify the different types of molecules and atoms that swirl away from the star which is 30-40 times as massive as our Sun.
VY Canis Majoris is some 4,500 light-years from Earth and could explode as a supernova at any time.
It is colossal. If VY Canis Majoris were sited at the centre of our Solar System, its surface would extend to the orbit of Saturn.

More:   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8382348.stm

[Rick]

The European Space Agency (Esa) has released stunning new pictures from the recently launched Herschel telescope.

The pictures show star formation, and have been described as among the most important images obtained from space for decades.

Astronomers hope that, by analysing these images, they will be able to answer questions about how stars and galaxies are made.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8416263.stm

Beautiful science from the Herschel telescope

Pictures: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8416714.stm

[Rick]

Europe's billion-euro Herschel Space Telescope is fully operational again after engineers brought its damaged instrument back online.

The observatory's HiFi spectrometer was turned off just three months into the mission because of an anomaly that was probably triggered by space radiation.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8458203.stm

[Whitters]

ESA's Herschel infrared space telescope has made an unexpected discovery: a hole in space. The hole has provided astronomers with a surprising glimpse into the end of the star-forming process.

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMFEAKPO8G_index_0.html

[Rick]

The picture is the first full-sky image from Europe's Planck telescope which was sent into space last year to survey the "oldest light" in the cosmos.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10501154.stm

[Whitters]

Press Release
N°03-2011

Paris, 11 January 2011

Planck's new view of the cosmic theatre

The first scientific results from ESA's Planck mission were released at a press briefing today in Paris. The findings focus on the coldest objects in the Universe, from within our Galaxy to the distant reaches of space.

If William Shakespeare were an astronomer living today, he might write that"All the Universe is a stage, and all the galaxies merely players."Planck is bringing us new views of both the stage and players, revealing the drama of the evolution of our Universe.

Following the publication by ESA of the first full-sky Planck image in July last year, today sees the release of the first scientific results from the mission.

These results are being presented by the Planck Collaboration at a major scientific conference in Paris this week, based on 25 papers submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The basis of many of these results is the Planck mission's 'Early Release Compact Source Catalogue', the equivalent of a cast list.

Drawn from Planck's continuing survey of the entire sky at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths, the catalogue contains thousands of very cold, individual sources which the scientific community is now free to explore.

"This is a great moment for Planck. Until now, everything has been about collecting data and showing off their potential. Now, at last, we can begin the discoveries,"says Jan Tauber, ESA Project Scientist for Planck.

We can think of the Universe as a stage on which the great cosmic drama plays out over three acts.

Visible-light telescopes see little more than the final act: the tapestry of galaxies around us. But by making measurements at wavelengths between the infrared and radio, Planck is able to work back in time and show us the preceding two acts.

The results released today contain important new information about the middle act, when the galaxies were being assembled.

Planck has found evidence for an otherwise invisible population of galaxies shrouded in dust billions of years in the past, which formed stars at rates some 10-1000 times higher than we see in our own Galaxy today. Measurements of this population had never been made at these wavelengths before."This is a first step, we are just learning how to work with these data and extract the most information,"says Jean-Loup Puget, CNRS-Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France.

Eventually, Planck will show us the best views yet of the Universe's first act: the formation of the first large-scale structures in the Universe, where the galaxies were later born. These structures are traced by the cosmic microwave background radiation, released just 380 000 years after the Big Bang, as the Universe was cooling.

However, in order to see it properly, contaminating emission from a whole host of foreground sources must first be removed. These include the individual objects contained in the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, as well as various sources of diffuse emission.

Today, an important step towards removing this contamination was also announced. The 'anomalous microwave emission' is a diffuse glow most strongly associated with the dense, dusty regions of our Galaxy, but its origin has been a puzzle for decades.

However, data collected across Planck's unprecedented wide wavelength range  confirm the theory that it is coming from dust grains set spinning at several tens of billion times a second by collisions with either fast-moving atoms or packets of ultraviolet light.  

This new understanding helps to remove this local microwave 'fog' from the Planck data with greater precision, leaving the cosmic microwave background untouched.

"This is a great result made possible by the exceptional quality of the Planck data,"says Clive Dickinson, University of Manchester, UK.

Among the many other results presented today, Planck has shown new details of yet other actors on the cosmic stage: distant clusters of galaxies. These show up in the Planck data as compact silhouettes against the cosmic microwave background.

The Planck Collaboration has identified 189 so far, including 20 previously unknown clusters that are being confirmed by ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory.

By surveying the whole sky, Planck stands the best chance of finding the most massive examples of these clusters. They are rare and their number is a sensitive probe of the kind of Universe we live in, how fast it is expanding, and how much matter it contains.  

"These observations will be used as bricks to build our understanding of the Universe,"says Nabila Aghanim, CNRS-Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France.

"Today's results are the tip of the scientific iceberg. Planck is exceeding expectations thanks to the dedication of everyone involved in the project,"says David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

"However, beyond those announced today, this catalogue contains the raw material for many more discoveries. Even then, we haven't got to the real treasure yet, the cosmic microwave background itself."

Planck continues to survey the Universe. Its next data release is scheduled for January 2013 and will reveal the cosmic microwave background in unprecedented detail, the opening act of the cosmic drama, a picture of the beginning of everything.

[Rick]

Link: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/SEMK4D3SNIG_0.html

[mickw]

The world's largest space telescope, ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, is celebrating one year of spectacular science.
A meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society in London is showcasing some of the latest groundbreaking research.
Herschel is a far-infrared telescope, and its three scientific instruments detect light with a wavelength typically several hundred times longer than the visible light that we see. Instead of seeing stars, this allows Herschel to observe gas and dust between the stars. Herschel is a flagship mission of the UK Space Agency, which funds the UK's involvement in the UK-led SPIRE instrument.
Herschel is observing objects in our galaxy and beyond, in an effort to understand when the first stars formed, how galaxies evolved into those we see around us today, and how planets form. Prof Derek Ward-Thompson, Cardiff University, one of the organisers of the meeting, said "This represents an opportunity to showcase the work taking place with Herschel data here in the UK. We are grateful to the RAS for hosting us, and I look forward to hearing about the latest developments."

More:   Herschel

[mickw]

ESA's Herschel space observatory has discovered a population of dust-enshrouded galaxies that do not need as much dark matter as previously thought to collect gas and burst into star formation.
The galaxies are far away and each boasts some 300 billion times the mass of the Sun. The size challenges current theory that predicts a galaxy has to be more than ten times larger, 5000 billion solar masses, to be able form large numbers of stars.
The new result is published today in a paper by Alexandre Amblard, University of California, Irvine, and colleagues.
Most of the mass of any galaxy is expected to be dark matter, a hypothetical substance that has yet to be detected but which astronomers believe must exist to provide sufficient gravity to prevent galaxies ripping themselves apart as they rotate.

More:   Herschel

[mickw]

The European Space Agency (Esa) is about to lose the use of one of its flagship satellites.

Since 2009, the billion-euro Herschel telescope has been unravelling the complexities of star birth and galaxy evolution.
But its instruments employ special detectors that need to be chilled to fantastically low temperatures.
The helium refrigerant that does this job will run out in a few weeks and when it does, Herschel will go blind.
The coming demise of the telescope is no surprise. It is occurring just as was forecast at the start of the mission, almost to the month.

More:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21668712

[Rick]

Herschel Discovers Some of the Youngest Stars Ever Seen

Astronomers have found some of the youngest stars ever seen, thanks to the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile, a collaboration involving the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, and the European Southern Observatory in Germany, contributed to the findings.

More: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/news/herschel20130319.html

[JonH]

So today it was confirmed the Herschel telescope has run out of its liquid helium refrigerant and is no longer taking photos.  
Maybe at the next meeting we could have a whip round and rase some money for a re-filling mission?  

More info: http://1.usa.gov/ZgkrX1

[Rocket Pooch]

These types of scopes really are an expensive fridge,although the images have been stunning....