First science results from Herschel/SPIRE
All three instruments on Herschel, including SPIRE, have released their first scientific results from the Science Demostration Phase of the mission.
On 14th May 2009, the Herschel Space Observatory was successfully launched from French Guiana, beginning its missions to explore the history of the Universe using infrared and submillimetre light.
Herschel, ESA's new space observatory, carries the largest and most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space. An ambitious mission to study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies, it will help us to understand how the Universe came to be what it is today.
Herschel will explore the far-infrared part of the spectrum in much more detail than any previous mission, studying otherwise invisible dusty and cold regions of the cosmos, both near and far. It will tap into previously unexploited wavelengths, seeing phenomena out of reach for other observatories. The telescope's primary mirror is 3.5 m in diameter, more than four times larger than any previous infrared space telescope and almost one and a half times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Herschel carries three advanced science instruments containing cameras and spectrometers with their detectors cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero by a sophisticated cryogenic system.
Herschel carries three advanced science instruments containing cameras and spectrometers with their detectors cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero by a sophisticated cryogenic system.