Herschel and Planck Launch

[Dancook]

Sorry if I get my facts wrong I'm just the web developer who's taking an interest in our client.

ESA Science & Technology: Home page

I thought it might be interesting to know at 15:12:02 CEST the Herschel and Planck satellite pair lifted off on board an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Herschel is the most powerful telescope now in space, and will be able to see further into space than the Hubble, which I believe will now be decommissioned.

The Planck satellite measures on the infrared wavelength and maintains a temperature of about -273 celcius, so that the heat given off from the satellite/instruments etc.. does not interfere with the readings.

Between them, they will hopefully tell us more about 'The Big Bang Theory'

[IronGiant]

Great stuff Didn't I hear the other day that they are just embarking on a hazardous repair/upgrade mission to Hubble though?

Dave

[Earthworm Jim]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

Great stuff Didn't I hear the other day that they are just embarking on a hazardous repair/upgrade mission to Hubble though?

Dave

Could be...........I heard on the news this morning thats is for scientific measurements of whats happening in the parts of space, and to take 360 degree infra-red shots of space

[Iccz]

With regards first to the Hubble, they are performing the fifth and final service mission to it:
STS-125 - The Final Shuttle Mission to the Hubble Telescope
NASA - Space Shuttle
(Slow reply cause im at work - what Dave said)

I was curious as to why both the Herschel and Planck were put into one rocket, other than to save money, but it seems it was designed for this anyways!
Thankfully, Herschel and Planck both successfully detached from the carrier, and are sending signals. For them it's now time to head off to the Lagrange point, a transfer which should take about two months.

Planck will be scanning for a number of months, at least a year, but we will not see anything in that time as the data will be analysed for a number of months after that.
The Herschel however will, hopefully, be helping get pictures of the infrared and sub-millimetre universe released a whole lot quicker.
Since light from very furthest objects is stretched out toward the red end of the spectrum, Herschel has infrared vision which should help us see stars and galaxies as they were forming. It should also enable us to see through clouds of dust and gas that currently block Hubble's view of new stars being born.
(What Jim must have heard about)

All three will be complimentary to each other and looking at different parts of the universe:
Herschel has the largest mirror ever put in space: 50% bigger than Hubble's.
Planck will have the clearest vision, with the ability to detect the smallest differences.
Hubble is better able to study galaxies, stars and planets beyond our solar system.

[Dancook]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

Great stuff Didn't I hear the other day that they are just embarking on a hazardous repair/upgrade mission to Hubble though?

Dave

ESA Science & Technology: Servicing Mission 4 - the fifth and final visit to Hubble [heic0907]

Servicing Mission 4 - the fifth and final visit to Hubble [heic0907]

On 11 May 2009, Space Shuttle Atlantis will launch with a crew of seven to visit the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and carry out the fifth and final servicing mission. The replacement and repair of several instruments will see Hubble equipped to continue its programme of discovery well into the next decade.

So, it's getting some TLC after all

[IronGiant]

Thanks Dan Jim and Iccz

Dave

[Iccz]

Forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that that the first light pictures from the Herschel were released over at:
ESA Science & Technology: Herschel's sneak preview: PACS images of M51

The first light is often an exciting time for the scientists involved with the project, you get to see a well known part of space and test for problems and see how things are looking for the telescope.
It has been almost 20 years since the Hubble underwent its first light, the picture is on the wikipedia entry for first light for those who are interested/havn't seen it yet.

Anyways, this is about the Herschel, but i'll come back to the Hubble soon. To be honest, at first inspection, it's not an overly impressive image, but don't let the fact that it is blurry and lacking detail bother you. Because it's infra-red light instead of visible light like the Hubble sees.

For those who may know there is already an infra-red picture of the whirlpool galaxy as pictured by the Herschel which was taken by the Spitzer Telescope, the difference between the picture from the Spitzer and the Herschel is that the Herschel can show frequencies far more accurately than the Spitzer, the Herschel can show between 55,000 and 672,000 nanometers (wavelength). As the side by side view on the ESA page shows, there's no contest between them.

Speaking of these frequencies, let's get back to the Hubble which focuses on visible light; shows between 400 and 700 nanometers. Remember the longer the wavelength the lower the temperature/energy, so that means the Herschel will not see stars etc but will see cooler gas, the Hubble can see the opposite, so what does this mean for us?

Well the cooler gas is usually spotted where new sun-like stars are forming, very interesting for the science community. Seeing as we already have a visible light picture of the whirlpool galaxy and now have these new infra-red pictures the teams involved have took a far infra-red image and combined it with that from the Hubble to create a stunning composite image of the whirlpool galaxy. The image shows both visible light and the cool gas and dust - which appears in red, showing newly forming, lower-mass stars. This shows how much you can do with what looks like a very unimpressive image, we now have an insight into the possible future of this galaxy by seeing where these new stars are forming. Fascinating stuff. Click image below for larger version.

[IronGiant]

Who leaked that photo of the inside of my BBQ onto the web?