Fact Sheet
The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory (formerly called Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope or FIRST) has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. At 3.5-metres in diameter the mirror will collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In addition, Herschel will be the only space observatory to cover a spectral range from the far infrared to sub-millimetre.
Mission Objectives
ESA's Herschel mission has been designed to unveil a face of the early Universe that has remained hidden until now. Thanks to its ability to detect radiation at far infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths, Herschel will be able to observe dust obscured and cold objects that are invisible to other telescopes. Herschel's major objective will be discovering how the first galaxies formed and how they evolved to give rise to present day galaxies like our own. Additional targets for Herschel will include clouds of gas and dust where new stars are being born, disks out of which planets may form and cometary atmospheres packed with complex organic molecules. Mission Name
Herschel, originally named FIRST (Far InfraRed and Sub-millimetre Telescope), was renamed in honour of Sir William Herschel, who in 1800 demonstrated the existence of infrared light. Both he and his sister Caroline Herschel were pioneering and successful astronomers. SpacecraftMass - about 3400 kg at launch Dimensions - 7.5m high, 4m × 4m overall cross section Launcher - Ariane 5 ECA from Guiana Space Centre Mission Lifetime - 3 years nominal from end of commissioning phase Wavelength - Infrared: 55 to 672 µm Telescope - Cassegrain, 3.5m primary and 0.3m secondary mirror
Instruments
| | Description | Principal Investigator | | HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared) | Very high resolution heterodyne spectrometer | Thijs de Graauw, Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON) (Groningen, The Netherlands) | | PACS (Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer) | Imaging photometer / medium resolution grating spectrometer | Albrecht Poglitsch, Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) (Garching, Germany) | | SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) | Imaging photometer / imaging Fourier transform spectrometer | Matthew Griffin, University of Wales (Cardiff, United Kingdom) | OrbitHerschel was launched on an Ariane 5 ECA rocket together with ESA's Planck spacecraft on 14 May 2009, at 13:12:02 UTC. The two spacecraft separated after launch and were directly injected towards the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2. About sixty days after launch, Herschel will enter a Lissajous orbit around the L2 point at a distance of around 1.5 million km from Earth, on Earth's nightside.
Operations Centre
Herschel's Mission Operations Centre (MOC) is located at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany and is responsible for the daily operations, health and safety of the spacecraft. For communication with the spacecraft ESA's New Norcia (close to Perth, Australia) and Cebreros (close to Avila, Spain) deep space antennas will be used. The Herschel science operations team is situated in the Herschel Science Centre (HSC) at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villanueva de la Cañada in Spain. The Herschel instrument control centres for monitoring and optimising the instruments' performance are located at: | for PACS: | the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany; | | for SPIRE: | the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK; | | for HIFI: | SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, the Netherlands. | An additional centre is the NASA Herschel Science Center located at the California Institute of Technology Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Pasadena, California, USA.
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Last Update: 09 Oct 2009
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