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| Artist's impression of Herschel Copyright: ESA |
Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with significant participation from NASA. It was launched into space from French Guiana in May of 2009, and now orbits a distant point, called the second Lagrange point of our Earth-sun system, about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) away. Herschel is the largest infrared space telescope ever flown, with a mirror 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in diameter. It measures infrared light, as does NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, but the two observatories only partially overlap. Herschel is optimized to detect longer wavelengths in the so-called far-infrared and sub millimeter ranges.
Herschel can see the coldest and dustiest objects in space; for example, cool cocoons where stars form and dusty galaxies just starting to bulk up with new stars. The observatory will sift through star-forming clouds -- the "slow cookers" of star ingredients -- to trace the path by which potentially life-forming molecules, such as water, form.
Herschel can see the coldest and dustiest objects in space; for example, cool cocoons where stars form and dusty galaxies just starting to bulk up with new stars. The observatory will sift through star-forming clouds -- the "slow cookers" of star ingredients -- to trace the path by which potentially life-forming molecules, such as water, form.
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| Image Credit: ESA – D. Ducros, 2009 |
Herschel is going to finish its observation in coming weeks because of lack of supply of liquid helium coolant.It completed more than 3 years.
In addition, Herschel is performing numerous other interesting observations specifically chosen to exploit every last drop of helium.
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| Herschel’s cryostat vacuum vessel |
“When observing comes to an end, we expect to have performed over 22 000 hours of science observations, 10% more than we had originally planned, so the mission has already exceeded expectations,” says Leo Metcalfe, the Herschel Science Operations and Mission Manager at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, Spain.
“We will finish observing soon, but Herschel data will enable a vast amount of exciting science to be done for many years to come,” says Göran Pilbratt, ESA’s Herschel Project Scientist at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
“In fact, the peak of scientific productivity is still ahead of us, and the task now is to make the treasure trove of Herschel data as valuable as possible for now and for the future.”
Herschel will continue communicating with its ground stations for some time after the helium is exhausted, allowing a range of technical tests. Finally, in early May, it will be propelled into its long-term stable parking orbit around the Sun.
Info and Image Credit : NASA, ESA