|
|
| Herschel discovers tip of cosmic iceberg around nearby young star |
| Using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory to study one of the closest protoplanetary discs to Earth, astronomers have detected cold water vapour for the first time in such an environment. Located in a thin layer at intermediate depths in the disc, the cold vapour hints at a much larger reservoir of water ice hidden deeper in the disc and amounting to several thousand times the mass of water that makes up our planet's oceans. The discovery sheds new light on the presence and role of water in the early formation stages of a planetary system. |
| Date: 20 Oct 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel finds first evidence of Earth-like water in a comet |
| A team of astronomers using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have discovered the first comet containing water that is similar in isotopic composition to that in Earth's oceans. This detection, in the comet 103P/Hartley 2, shows that contrary to earlier belief, comets may well have played an important role in bringing water to our planet, and that the reservoir of Earth-like water in the Solar System is far larger than suspected. |
| Date: 05 Oct 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel probes the dusty history of a giant star |
| About 5 thousand million years from now, our Sun will expand into a red giant, swelling to such a size that it may swallow the Earth. It will then begin to shed huge amounts of dust, surrounding itself with an expanding circumstellar envelope (CSE) that ultimately will become a planetary nebula. New insights into this process have been revealed by ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, which is providing unprecedented images of the complex, outer structure of a nearby CSE. |
| Date: 20 Sep 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel reveals how most stars formed in the Universe |
| Do galaxies form their stars through violent and tumultuous merging events or rather via more steady and gentle processes? Scrutinising thousands of galaxies across the past 11 billion years of cosmic history with ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have, for the first time, been able to answer this long-standing question. Contrary to previous belief, the new data reveal that most of the stars ever formed in the history of the Universe have done so quietly. |
| Date: 13 Sep 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel uncovers 'hidden' oxygen in Orion |
| Herschel has found the first robust evidence of molecular oxygen in the Orion Nebula. The observed abundance is ten times larger than indicated by previous observations of other molecular clouds, but is still well below theoretical expectations. The results suggest that, in special circumstances, the heat from newborn stars can liberate oxygen frozen out on dust grains, thus increasing the amount of molecular oxygen able to form in warm, dense gas clouds. |
| Date: 01 Aug 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel confirms Enceladus as primary water supply for Saturn's atmosphere |
| Observing Saturn, Herschel has detected evidence of water molecules in a huge torus surrounding the planet and centred on the orbit of its small moon, Enceladus. The water plumes on Enceladus, which were detected by the Cassini-Huygens mission, inject the water into the torus and part of it eventually precipitates into Saturn's atmosphere. The new study has identified Enceladus as the primary water supply to Saturn's upper atmosphere; this is the first example in the Solar System of a moon directly influencing the atmosphere of its host planet. |
| Date: 26 Jul 2011 |
|
|
| Stardust in our backyard provides new clues to galaxy evolution |
| New data from ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have revealed surprisingly large amounts of cold dust in the remnant of the famous supernova SN1987A, which is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy of the Milky Way, and was first observed 24 years ago. With this discovery, the astronomers confirm that supernovae are able to produce significant quantities of dust over very short time scales. This may help explain previous observations, by Herschel and other observatories, of abundant dust in the early Universe as seen in high-redshift galaxies. The results are published online today in Science Express. |
| Date: 07 Jul 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel Announcement of Opportunity for Open Time (OT2) observations |
| The second (and final) in-flight Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Open Time (OT2) observations with the Herschel Space Observatory has been issued. The OT2 call solicits proposals from the worldwide astronomical community. The deadline for proposal submissions is: 15 September 2011 at 12:00 UT. |
| Date: 10 Jun 2011 |
|
|
| Caught in the act by Herschel: galactic storms sweep away the gas |
| ESA's Herschel Space Observatory has detected massive amounts of molecular gas gusting at high velocities - in some cases in excess of 1000 kilometres per second - from the centres of a set of merging galaxies. Driven by star formation and central black holes, these powerful storms are strong enough to sweep away billions of solar masses of molecular gas and to interfere with global galactic processes. These observations indicate that, in the galaxies hosting the brightest Active Galactic Nuclei, outflows can clear the entire supply for creating stars and feeding the black hole. This finding provides long-sought-after evidence of highly energetic feedback processes taking place in galaxies as they evolve. |
| Date: 09 May 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel unravels the thread of star formation in the Gould Belt |
| An intricate network of filamentary structure, exposed in extraordinary detail by the Herschel Space Observatory, has provided new evidence for how stars form from the diffuse interstellar medium. These filaments, located in giant molecular clouds in the Gould Belt, all exhibit remarkably similar widths - about one third of a light year - but only the densest ones contain pre-stellar cores, the seeds of future stars. These data suggest star formation is a two-step process: first turbulence stirs up the gas, giving rise to a web-like structure, then gravity takes over and governs the further fragmentation of filaments into stars. |
| Date: 13 Apr 2011 |
|
|
| Herschel quantifies the dark matter threshold for starburst galaxies |
| How much dark matter is needed to trigger a starburst in the cosmic cribs where galaxies are born? A new study, based on data from ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, has revealed that dark matter halos with a mass larger than 300 billion times the Sun's are particularly efficient at igniting massive starbursts, as they house the most active star-forming galaxies in the Universe. Astronomers have discovered this key threshold by measuring small fluctuations in the Cosmic Infrared Background, the integrated diffuse emission produced by the dust from every galaxy that ever existed. These fluctuations trace the distribution of otherwise mostly unresolved star-forming galaxies and of the dark matter halos that enshroud them. These results are reported in the 24 February 2011 issue of Nature and are published online today. |
| Date: 16 Feb 2011 |
|
|
| Andromeda's once and future stars |
| Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2011 |
|
|
| Andromeda's once and future stars |
| Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2011 |
|
|
| Europe maintains its presence on the final frontier |
| ESA has decided to extend the productive lives of 11 of its operating space science missions. This will enable ESA's world-class science missions to continue returning pioneering results until at least 2014. |
| Date: 22 Nov 2010 |
|
|
| New method reveals gravitationally lensed galaxies in Herschel-ATLAS first survey |
| Astronomers using early data from one of the largest projects to be undertaken with
the ESA Herschel Space Observatory have demonstrated that virtually all bright sub-millimetre galaxies in the distant Universe are subject to gravitational lensing, which
amplifies their flux thus easing their detection and characterisation. Analysis of less
than three per cent of the entire Herschel-ATLAS survey, which probes the distant
and hidden Universe, yielded a first sample of five lensed galaxies and paves the way
for the compilation, in the near future, of a rich catalogue of distant, star-forming
and dust-obscured galaxies. The results are reported in the 5 November 2010 issue
of Science. |
| Date: 04 Nov 2010 |
|
|
| Herschel detection explains the origin of water in a carbon star |
| ESA's Herschel Space Observatory has detected water vapour in a location previously thought to be impossible - in the atmosphere of an ageing, red giant carbon star. The rich and detailed data provided by Herschel can be explained within a new framework in which ultraviolet photons play a key role. These results are reported in the 2 September issue of Nature. |
| Date: 01 Sep 2010 |
|
|
| Special issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics dedicated to Herschel's first results |
| The first scientific results obtained with Herschel are appearing, this week, in a special issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Based on data collected during the first few months of operations with this ESA observatory, the 152 new publications tackle a multitude of different astrophysical subjects, ranging from nearby Solar System bodies through newly-forming stars in our Galaxy, all the way to very distant galaxies. These first results provide a clear indication of the profound contribution that this mission will make to astronomy. |
| Date: 16 Jul 2010 |
|
|
| Herschel Announcement of Opportunity for Open Time (OT1) observations |
| The first in-flight Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Open Time (OT1) observations with the Herschel Space Observatory has been issued. The OT1 call solicits proposals from the worldwide astronomical community and offers 6592 hours of Herschel observing time. The deadline for proposal submissions is: 22 July 2010 at 12:00 UT. |
| Date: 21 May 2010 |
|
|
| Herschel unveils rare massive stars in the act of forming |
| New images from ESA's Herschel space observatory reveal high-mass protostars around two ionised regions in our Galaxy. The detection of these rare stars in an early phase of evolution is key to understanding the mysterious formation of massive stars. |
| Date: 06 May 2010 |
|
|
| Herschel reveals galaxies in the GOODS fields in a brand new light |
| The discovery of a previously unresolved population of galaxies in the GOODS fields and the first measurements of properties of galaxies in the almost unexplored far-infrared domain are among the first exciting scientific results achieved by Herschel's PACS and SPIRE instruments. These findings confirm the extraordinary capabilities of ESA's new infrared space observatory to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies. |
| Date: 06 May 2010 |
|
|
