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Herschel and Planck


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ESA's Planck Mission


Summary

The Planck mission will collect and characterise radiation from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) using sensitive radio receivers operating at extremely low temperatures. These receivers will determine the black body equivalent temperature of the background radiation and will be capable of distinguishing temperature variations of about one microkelvin. These measurements will be used to produce the best ever maps of aniosotopies in the CMB radiation field.


The Spacecraft

The Planck spacecraft is 4.2 metres high and has a maximum diameter of 4.2 metres, with a launch mass of around 1.8 tonnes. The spacecraft comprises a service module, which houses systems for power generation and conditioning, attitude control, data handling and communications, together with the warm parts of the scientific instruments, and a payload module. The payload module consists of the telescope, the optical bench, with the parts of the instruments that need to be cooled - the sensitive detector units - and the cooling systems.


The Telescope and Instruments

The Planck telescope is an off-axis tilted Gregorian design with a primary mirror 1.75 x 1.5 meters in size. The two scientific instruments are:

LFI (Low frequency Instrument), an array of radio receivers using high electron mobility transistor mixers
HFI (High frequency Instrument), an array of microwave detectors using spider bolometers equipped with neutron transmutation doped germanium thermistors

Planck Capabilities

Planck will provide a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) field at all angular resolutions greater than 10 arcminutes and with a temperature resolution of the order of one part in 106. The simultaneous mapping of the sky at a wide range of frequencies will enable the separation of the Galactic and extragalactic foreground radiation from the primordial cosmological background signal.


The Questions Planck Will Answer

The questions that Planck will seek answers to include:
  • What are the (more precise) values of fundamental cosmological parameters such as the Hubble constant?
  • Can it be shown conclusively that the early Universe passed through an inflationary phase?
  • What is the nature of the dark matter that dominates the present Universe?

Joint Launch

An Ariane-5 launcher will carry Planck into space in July 2007. For reasons of cost effectiveness, ESA has decided to launch Planck together with Herschel, an infrared space telescope. The two spacecraft will separate soon after launch and will operate independently.


L2 Orbit

Planck's operational orbit is located 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth in a direction diametrically opposite the Sun, at the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L2).


Mission Lifetime

Planck has a nominal operational lifetime of twenty-one months.


Planck's Predecessors

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was launched on 18 November 1989. COBE determined that the CMB exhibits anisotropies at a level of one part in 105 and showed that the CMB spectrum matched that of a black body with a temperature of 2.725 K ± 2 mK.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was launched on 30 June 2001 and has made measurements of the CMB enabling the creation of a map of the anisotropies with much higher spatial and temperature resolution and improved accuracy compared to the COBE results. WMAP has completed four sky scans and has a nominal observing lifetime of four years.

Source: ESA - Planck - Mission Summary
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Planck telescope behaves well in cold vacuum


user posted image
Planck's mirrors are tested in the Large Space Simulator at ESA's test centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Credits: ESA


15 August 2006
ESA's Planck space telescope was removed last week from the Large Space Simulator (LSS) at ESTEC, ESA's research and technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, after a thorough two-week test in temperatures down to -178 degrees Celsius. The test is an important milestone towards launch in 2008.

Once in space, Planck will investigate cosmic background radiation: the remnants of the Big Bang over fourteen billion years ago. The telescope will make observations in the far-infrared spectrum; this can only be achieved using super-cooled instruments. It is essential to test the telescope at very low temperatures – a task highly suited to ESA’s Large Space Simulator.

Cold vacuum

user posted image
It will collect the most ancient radiation in the Universe. Filtering this so-called cosmic ray background means that you send reasonable-sized data and save time.

Credits: Alcatel


"Central to this test is exposure of the mirrors and their structural frame to a very cold vacuum", explains ESA scientist Philippe Kletzkine. "The telescope is built at room temperature and then cooled to way below the freezing point. Even though the materials were chosen carefully, this makes each individual component of the telescope shrink to some small but not negligible extent. We need to know whether the resulting changes in shape match our predictions. We have to be spot on, so the mirrors line up properly."
Videogrammetry is used to get a clearer picture of the changes in shape. Thousands of photographs, taken from many different angles, are used to build up a three-dimensional image of the mirrors, their structural frame and the place where the telescope’s cameras will be mounted. This process is repeated at several temperatures.

Arithmetic

user posted image
Videogrammetry image used to map the shape of Planck's mirrors during testing in the Large Space Simulator. Thousands of photos, taken one after the other from different angles, build up a three-dimensional image of Planck's mirrors in their frame.

Credits: ESA


The telescope has been returned to a cleanroom at ESTEC. This completes the hands-on part of the measurement – now it is time for some arithmetic. Kletzkine: "Over the next few weeks we will be busy interpreting the test results. According to our first impressions the telescope has behaved well."

Earlier this year, Planck's mirrors were tested individually without the telescope structural frame at Alcatel, in Cannes, France. The results of their videogrammetry tests met expectations. Alcatel Alenia Space France is Prime Contractor to ESA for the Planck spacecraft.

Preparations for the mission continue at ESTEC. All the components needed to complete the spacecraft will be delivered and tested together in the coming months. Eventually the flight model will undergo vibration testing, acoustic testing, high and low temperature testing, as well as various tests of the computers and communications equipment on board.

Spinner

user posted image
Planck's mirrors are lowered into the Large Space Simulator at ESA's test centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Credits: ESA


When the satellite is nearly completed, it will once again be placed in the Large Space Simulator. Planck is a so-called 'spinner', a satellite that rotates around its axis. New test runs in the LSS, again under vacuum but this time at normal room temperature, will check that the complete spacecraft is well balanced.

If everything goes to plan, at the end of 2007 Planck will pass its 'flight readiness review': a last step before proceeding with launch activities in 2008. Planck will be launched together with ESA’s Herschel spacecraft, itself an infra-red space telescope of a different kind, by ESA’s own Ariane-5 ECA heavy-lift launch vehicle.


Source: ESA - News
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  • 2 months later...
Planck instruments ready for integration


IPB Image
This artist's view shows the Planck satellite and a sketch of the microwave radiation
being collected and focussed by the telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors.

The radiation is then conveyed to the focal planes of the two instruments (LFI Low
Frequency Instrument and the HFI High Frequency Instrument). LFI is designed to
convert the lower energy microwaves into electrical voltages, rather like a transistor
radio. HFI works by converting the higher energy microwaves to heat, which is then
measured by a tiny electrical thermometer.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab


16 November 2006
Engineers are ready to begin integrating the scientific instruments into ESA's Planck satellite. The pair of instruments will allow the spacecraft to make the most precise map yet of the relic radiation left behind by the formation of the Universe.

The integration of Planck's two instruments marks a major milestone for the mission. "We have been working on the design of these instruments for 14 years. For most of that time we have been living in a paper world; to finally have them as pieces of hardware feels great," says Jan Tauber, the Planck Project Scientist.

The instruments are the key to the mission. Working in tandem, they will significantly advance our knowledge of the Big Bang. During the Big Bang, all of space was a tremendously hot furnace, filled with particles and radiation. In the approximately 13 thousand million years since then, the Universe has expanded and the radiation has cooled to become microwaves.

IPB Image
This artist's view shows the combined focal plane of the two instruments on board ESA's
Planck spacecraft.

The two instruments detect the collected radiation in different ways. The Low Frequency
Instrument (LFI) is designed to convert the lower energy microwaves into electrical
voltages, rather like a transistor radio. The High Frequency Instrument (HFI) works by
converting the higher energy microwaves to heat, which is then measured by a tiny
electrical thermometer. The instruments share a common telescope.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab


The Planck spacecraft will use a 1.5 metre mirror to systematically collect the cosmic microwave background radiation from the whole sky, and feed it to the two instruments.

The two instruments detect the collected radiation in different ways. The Low Frequency Instrument (or LFI) will convert the lower energy microwaves into electrical voltages, rather like a transistor radio.

The High Frequency Instrument (or HFI) works by converting the higher energy microwaves to heat, which is then measured by a tiny electrical thermometer.

These signals will be analysed for tiny differences in strength. Such variations indicate differences in the density of matter in the early Universe. Slightly denser regions became the galaxies we see today, whereas the less dense areas became the great voids that fill parts of space. This pattern is influenced by the amount of normal matter, dark matter and dark energy that fills the Universe. So using Planck's maps, astronomers will be able to place the most stringent limits yet on the quantities of these three universal components.

There is even a possibility that Planck will detect a slight distortion of the microwave background caused by a suspected period in cosmic history, known as the inflationary epoch. Inflationary theory postulates that the entire Universe underwent a period of enormously accelerated expansion just after the Big Bang. If so, it would cause the whole of space to ripple in a highly specific way. This slight ripple might show up in the Planck data. "Of all the exciting science that we will do, this is the most exciting possible measurement of all," says Tauber.

Between now and Planck's launch in mid-2008, there remain a number of important, additional milestones. For example, the entire spacecraft must be tested at a special cryogenic facility built at the Centre Spatial de Liège, Université de Liège, Belgium. "This will be a big test for us and the satellite," says Tauber.

"The test is necessary because the instruments must be operated at extremely cold temperatures," says Thomas Passvogel, ESA Project Manager for Herschel and Planck. "In the case of HFI, the operating temperature is just one tenth of a degree above absolute zero."

On launch day itself, Planck will be lofted into space by an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Inside the nose cone, Planck will be keeping company with ESA's Herschel infrared space telescope. With a 3.5 metre mirror, Herschel will be the orbiting telescope with the largest mirror ever deployed in space. Together Planck and Herschel will survey the cold Universe. Instead of looking for the formation of the Universe, however, Herschel's primary mission will be to see the formation of stars and galaxies.


Source: ESA - News
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ESA's Herschel Mission


Herschel overview

IPB Image

Status
In development

Objective
Exploring formation of stars and galaxies, ESA’s Herschel space observatory (formerly called Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope, or FIRST) will solve the mystery of how stars and galaxies are born.

Mission

IPB Image
Image shows telescope, vessel containing liquid helium cryostat (narrow, middle part),
and service module at the bottom.

Credits: ESA 2002. Illustration by Medialab.


Herschel will be the largest space telescope of its kind when launched. Herschel’s 3.5-metre diameter mirror will collect long-wavelength infrared radiation from some of the coolest and most distant objects in the Universe. Herschel will be the only space observatory to cover the spectral range from far-infrared to sub-millimetre wavelengths.

Infrared radiation is invisible for the human eye. It is actually 'heat', or thermal radiation. Even objects that we think of as being very cold, such as an ice cube, emit infrared radiation. For this reason, infrared telescopes can observe astronomical objects that remain hidden for optical telescopes, such as cool objects that are unable to emit in visible light.

Also, infrared instruments need to be cooled down to temperatures below -271°C, otherwise their own infrared emission would spoil the observations. Opaque objects, those surrounded by clouds of dust, are another speciality for infrared telescopes: the longer infrared wavelengths can penetrate the dust, allowing us to see deeper into such clouds.

However, Earth's atmosphere acts as an 'umbrella' for most infrared wavelengths, preventing them from reaching the ground. A space telescope is needed to detect this kind of radiation invisible to the human eye and to optical telescopes.

What's special?

If it was possible to look at the Universe from the outside it would probably appear as a foamy structure, with the galaxies distributed in curved walls surrounding huge areas of emptiness, like bubbles in a foam bath. Such is the overall picture of the present-day Universe.

However, it was not always like that. There was a time when galaxies were not there, simply because they did not even exist yet. Astronomers have several questions about this time. When did galaxies form? How did it happen? Did they all form at about the same time, or is there a non-stop galaxy-making machine at work? Were the first galaxies like those we see now? The galaxies are made of stars... Did the stars form first and then get together to form galaxies, or was it the other way round? How do stars form? When they form, do they normally form planets as well?

Astronomers dream of a telescope able to answer these kinds of questions. They want a telescope that fulfils at least two requirements. It has to be a giant space telescope, able to collect light from very distant galaxies. Secondly, it must be able to observe objects completely enshrouded by dust, as forming stars and galaxies are certainly dusty.

ESA's Herschel mission has been designed specifically to achieve these goals. With its ability to detect far-infrared light, it will let astronomers see, for the first time, dusty and cold regions that have been hidden so far. With its 3.5-metre mirror, Herschel will mark the beginning of a new generation of 'space giants'.

Spacecraft and telescope

The Herschel satellite is approximately 7 metres high and 4.3 metres wide, with a launch mass of around 3.25 tonnes. It will carry the infrared telescope and three scientific instruments. The bulk of the spacecraft consists of a liquid helium thermos bottle inside which the instrument detectors sit and are cooled down to only a few degrees above absolute zero.

The Herschel spacecraft will be built by an industrial consortium led by Alcatel in Cannes, France, with EADS Astrium in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and Alenia in Torino, Italy, as the main subcontractors, and more subcontractors all over Europe.

The telescope is a Cassegrain telescope, with a primary mirror diameter of 3.5 metres. This is the largest space telescope ever to be built and a great technological challenge that Europe will face alone. The contract signed between ESA and EADS Astrium in Toulouse, France, to build Herschel's telescope makes it fully European.

Herschel's telescope has to meet demanding requirements. It has to be light enough to be placed into an orbit far more distant than, for example, that of Hubble: Herschel will be orbiting at a point called L2, 1.5 million kilometres away, about four times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

Also, the mirror's surface has to be extremely smooth; it must be polished to make it so uniform that its 'bumps' are smaller than a few thousandths of a millimetre. It will have to withstand very hard environmental conditions. At launch, it will be 'shaken' with a force several times that of normal gravity on Earth. In space, it will go through extreme temperature changes - from ambient temperature at launch to an average of -200°C.

Science payload

Engineers designed Herschel's science payload and optimised it with the prime science goals in mind. Moreover, it offers a wide range of capabilities for the 'general' observer. It consists of three instruments:
  • Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument will be built by a consortium led by MPE, Garching, Germany.
  • Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE) instrument will be built by a consortium led by University of Cardiff, United Kingdom.
  • Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) instrument will be built by a consortium led by SRON, Groningen, The Netherlands.

PACS and SPIRE are cameras and spectrometers that will allow Herschel to take pictures in six different ‘colours’ in the far-infrared. HIFI is a spectrometer with extremely high resolution. The scientific payload complement was approved by the ESA in February 1999.

Journey

Herschel will be launched in 2007 with another mission, Planck - a mission to study the cosmic microwave background radiation - on an Ariane rocket. The two spacecraft will separate soon after launch and will operate independently. Herschel will travel to an orbit beyond the Moon around a point known as the second Lagrangian point (L2).

Herschel has an operational lifetime of three years minimum. It potentially offers about 7000 hours of science time per year. It is a multiuser observatory accessible to astronomers from all over the world.

History

The main scientific emphasis, mission requirements, and technological needs for Herschel (or FIRST as it was then called) were discussed for the first time in the early 1980s. In 1983, the United States-Dutch-British IRAS satellite inaugurated infrared space astronomy by mapping 250 000 cosmic infrared sources and large areas of extended emission.

In November 1995, ESA launched its Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) which has allowed a much closer look, a more detailed perception of the 'infrared scenery'. In August 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF), a space-borne, cryogenically cooled infrared observatory. This is still currently operating.

As ESA's fourth Cornerstone mission, Herschel has been planned to build on and extend the successes of these earlier missions by offering a much larger telescope and being the first to extend the spectral coverage down into the far-infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths.

Source: ESA - Space Science - Herschel
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Herschel 'service module' ready for final integration


IPB Image
Artist's impression of ESA's Herschel satellite, designed to study
the formation of galaxies and stars. It is due for launch in mid
2008, in couple with the ESA Planck satellite that will map the
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to study the early of the
Universe.


Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab

6 December 2006
ESA’s Herschel spacecraft is proceeding towards its industrial completion. The satellite’s service module has passed its assembly and verification tests, and is now ready to move towards its final integration and test phases.

The service module is the satellite platform on top of which the ‘payload module’ - containing the cryostat with the science instruments and the telescope - will be mounted.

The Herschel satellite will carry the largest telescope mirror ever flown in space. It will operate in the infra-red and sub-millimetre wavelengths, to study the formation of stars and galaxies.

After its assembly by the Alcatel Alenia Space teams in Turin, Italy, the service module successfully passed the verification phase, and is now ready to be delivered to Astrium Satellites for final satellite assembly. The complete satellite will then be submitted to environmental acceptance tests in the ESA facilities located at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), The Netherlands.

The Herschel satellite is planned for launch in mid 2008, on board an Ariane-5 rocket, together with the Planck satellite, the ESA astronomy mission designed to accurately measure the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation that carries information about the early Universe.


Note

The development of the Herschel and Planck satellites, and all support activities prior to their launch, are provided by Alcatel Alenia Space, the industrial Prime Contractor selected by ESA, leading a consortium of more than 30 companies. Both spacecraft's service modules are equipped with state of the art avionics, power distribution, communication, attitude control and propulsion subsystems, and they have been developed over a time span of 5 years.


Source: ESA - Space Science - Herschel
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Planck satellite on view


linked-image
This artist's view shows the Planck satellite and a sketch of the microwave radiation
being collected and focussed by the telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors.

The radiation is then conveyed to the focal planes of the two instruments (LFI Low
Frequency Instrument and the HFI High Frequency Instrument). LFI is designed to
convert the lower energy microwaves into electrical voltages, rather like a transistor
radio. HFI works by converting the higher energy microwaves to heat, which is then
measured by a tiny electrical thermometer.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab


31 January 2007
ESA’s Planck satellite, due to study relic radiation from the Big Bang, is on display for the media tomorrow in Cannes. Images of the spacecraft in all its glory will be published on the web at the end of the press conference.

The press conference is organised by ESA and Alcatel Alenia Space (AAS), at the AAS facilities in Cannes, France, on 1 February, to mark the completion of the integration of Planck and to present its technological achievements and scientific objectives.

About Planck

Planck will make the most accurate maps yet of the microwave background radiation that fills space. It will be sensitive to temperature variations of a few millionths of a degree and will map the full sky in nine wavelengths.

The immediate outcome of the Big Bang and the initial conditions for the evolution in the universe’s structure are the primary target of this important mission. From the results, a great deal more will be learnt not only about the nature and amount of dark matter, the ‘missing mass’ of the universe, but also about the nature of dark energy and the expansion of the universe itself.

To address such challenging objectives, Planck will need to operate at very low, stable temperatures. Once in space, its detectors will have to be cooled to temperature levels close to absolute zero (-273.15ºC), ranging from -253ºC to only a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero. The Planck spacecraft thus has to be a marvel of cryotechnology.

After integration, Planck will start a series of tests that will continue into early-2008. It will be launched by end-July 2008 in a dual-launch configuration with Herschel, ESA’s mission to study the formation of galaxies, stars and planetary systems in the infrared.


Note

The Planck spacecraft was built by AAS Cannes, the prime contractor, leading a consortium of industrial partners with the AAS industry branch in Turin, Italy, responsible for the satellite’s service module. ESA and the Danish National Space Centre (Copenhagen, Denmark) are responsible for the hardware provision of Planck’s telescope mirrors, manufactured by EADS Astrium (Friedrichshafen, Germany).

AAS Cannes is also responsible for the payload module, the platform that hosts the telescope and the two onboard instruments, HFI and LFI. The instruments themselves are being supplied by a consortium of scientists and institutes led by the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale at Orsay (France) in the case of HFI, and by the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF) in Bologna (Italy) in that of LFI.

There are also numerous subcontractors spread throughout Europe, with several more in the USA.


Source: ESA - News
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Planck satellite shows its beauty


linked-image
Planck satellite on display in Cannes by Alcatel Alenia Space (AAS)'s facilities on
1 February 2007. AAS is the Prime Contractor for building the satellite.

Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja


1 February 2007
Today, ESA's Planck satellite has been on display for media gathered in Cannes. The press event took place by the facility of Alcatel Alenia Space, Prime Contractor for building the satellite. Special guest was George Smoot, Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006 for his research on the Cosmic Microwave background.

The press event has been marked by the special participation of George F.Smoot (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, USA), Nobel prize for Physics in 2006 together with John C. Mather (NASA), for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the Cosmic Background Radiation – Planck's object of study.

Planck is Europe's first mission to study the relic radiation from the Big Bang. Ever since the detection of small fluctuations in the temperature of this radiation, announced in late 1992, astronomers have used the fluctuations to understand both the origin of the Universe and the formation of galaxies.

linked-image
George F.Smoot, Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006, views the Planck satellite in the
Alcatel Alenia Space facilities in Cannes, France, on 1 February 2007.

Smoot, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., Univ of California, shares the Nobel
prize with John C. Mather (NASA) for the discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy
of the Cosmic Background Radiation – Planck’s object of study.

Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja


A video-interview with George Smoot, commenting on the science to be performed by Planck, can be viewed by clicking here (video part 1, video part 2).

The beauty of Planck, a true technology jewel designed to survive in cold space and operate at temperatures close to absolute zero (-273.15°C), can be admired in the photos below.

linked-image

linked-image
Planck satellite on display in Cannes by Alcatel Alenia Space (AAS)'s facilities on
1 February 2007. AAS is the Prime Contractor for building the satellite.

Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja



linked-image
Planck satellite's mirrors on display in Cannes, by Alcatel
Alenia Space facilities.

Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja



linked-image
George F.Smoot, Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006, views
the Planck satellite in the Alcatel Alenia Space facilities in
Cannes, France, on 1 February 2007.

Smoot, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., Univ of
California, shares the Nobel prize with John C. Mather (NASA)
for the discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of
the Cosmic Background Radiation – Planck’s object of study.

Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja



Note

By the end of February, Planck will have completed its integration. Between that moment and Planck's launch in mid-2008, there remain a number of important, additional milestones. For example, the entire spacecraft must be tested at a special cryogenic facility built at the Centre Spatial de Liège, Université de Liège, Belgium.

The test is necessary because the instruments must be operated at extremely cold temperatures," says Thomas Passvogel, ESA Project Manager for Herschel and Planck. "In the case of HFI, the operating temperature is just one tenth of a degree above absolute zero."

On launch day itself, Planck will be lofted into space by an Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Inside the nose cone, Planck will be keeping company with ESA's Herschel infrared space telescope. With a 3.5 metre mirror, Herschel will be the orbiting telescope with the largest mirror ever deployed in space. Together Planck and Herschel will survey the cold Universe. Instead of looking for the formation of the Universe, however, Herschel's primary mission will be to see the formation of stars and galaxies.


Source: ESA - News
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Herschel passes a new milestone


linked-image
Top view of the Herschel cryostat in the Large Space Simulator, where it is being prepared
for a three week test in in ESA's ESTEC facilities, Noordwijk (Netherlands). The tests
took place between the end of January and mid February 2007.

Credits: ESA


21 February 2007
The heart of ESA's infrared space telescope, Herschel, has successfully completed a vital round of tests. The cylindrical cryostat will now be loaded with the spacecraft's instruments before more tests and Herschel’s eventual launch in 2008.

Herschel's cryostat is a complex vacuum flask, 2.5 metres high and 2 metres wide. It is vital to the mission because Herschel's instruments need a temperature of 1.7 Kelvin (–271.3 degrees Celsius) to operate within their most sensitive range. The instrument surroundings must equally be very cold, to enable Herschel to see to see the infrared emission from cool matter in the Universe. If the cryostat and instruments reach higher temperatures they will emit infrared, overwhelming that from the celestial objects.

linked-image
Herschel cryostat being prepared for a three week test inside the Large Space Simulator,
in ESA's ESTEC facilities, Noordwijk (Netherlands). The tests took place between the
end of January and mid February 2007.

Credits: ESA


Herschel must sit in the full glare of the hot Sun because it uses a solar panel to turn sunlight into electrical power. The cryostat is therefore essential to cool the instruments. The cryostat sits behind the solar panel, isolated from it by several layers of insulation, and contains two tanks that will be filled with liquid helium.

The first procedure in the just completed cycle of tests was the 'bake out'. In this process, the empty cryostat was heated to 80 degrees centigrade. Heating drives out any volatile substances including any residual water left inside the cryostat. Water reduces the quality of the insulation so its removal is vital to the lifetime of the cryostat. "In effect, the bake out cleans the cryostat," says Thomas Passvogel, Herschel's Project Manager.

linked-image
This artist's concept shows the Herschel spacecraft.

Herschel will be the largest space telescope ever launched to
date. Its 3.5-metre diameter mirror will collect long-wavelength
infrared radiation from some of the coolest and most distant
objects in the Universe. Herschel will be the only space
observatory to cover the range from far-infrared to sub-millimetre
wavelengths.

The mission will be launched in July 2008, in tandem with ESA's
Planck spacecraft, by an Ariane-5 from Europe's Spaceport in
Kourou (French Guiana).

Credits: ESA


Next, the engineering team simulated the launch campaign. The cryostat was cooled down and the tanks were filled with liquid helium just as they will be five days before launch. The main tank holds 2250 litres of superfluid helium. The small tank is used to extend the ground 'hold' time of the system. The team monitored the helium temperature increase in the main tank, while cooling the cryostat with helium evaporating from the small tank. Every second day, they topped-up the small tank.

When they do this for real, at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, the cryostat will be able to withstand a launch delay of one day before the temperature in the main tank gets too high to launch safely. If the delay is any longer, the rocket will be rolled back to the assembly building and the engineers will have to recondition the main tank, refill it and subcool it.

The final tests in the current round were to monitor the behaviour of the cryostat with the outer vessel at ambient temperature; then to load it into the Large Space Simulation chamber at the European Science and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and monitor it again, this time under the conditions that Herschel will find in space. "We need these two extremes so that we can correlate computer models to predict what will happen inside the cryostat between launch and when it cools to its final operating temperature," says Passvogel.

Now that Herschel’s cryostat has passed all these tests and supplied excellent data for the team, the task of placing the instruments inside must begin. Then there will be more tests, in preparation for the July 2008 launch.


Source: ESA - Space Science - Herschel
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  • 2 weeks later...
Getting ready for Herschel


linked-image
The Herschel telescope's primary mirror will be the largest ever launched in space. In
this photo, it is being coated with a thin aluminium cover, which is the working surface
of the telescope, in the vacuum chamber at Calar Alto Observatory, Spain.

Credits: EADS Astrium/ P. Dumas


2 March 2007
Hundreds of astronomers met at ESA’s European Science and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands on 20-21 February 2007 to make plans for using Herschel, ESA’s large Infrared Space Telescope due for launch in July 2008. With the largest mirror ever to be flown in space, Herschel will change forever the way astronomers see the infrared Universe.

Herschel’s mirror is fully 3.5 metres in diameter: twice the size of any previous infrared telescope. It is even one and a half times larger than the optical Hubble Space Telescope. Its three high-precision instruments will detect far-infrared radiation from cool objects in the Universe. These will often be still-forming stars, surrounded by cool cocoons of dust and gas, either in star forming regions in our own galaxy or as starburst galaxies.

linked-image
This beautiful and unusual view of the M16 nebula, also known as 'The Eagle', was built
thanks to data collected by ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). It shows exactly
what in the best known pictures of this famous nebula remains invisible: huge amounts
of the cold dust that enshrouds newborn stars.

Building upon ISO's heritage, ESA's Herschel spacecraft, to study the Universe at infrared
and sub-millimitre wavelenghts, will peer into the secrets of star formation with state-of-
the-art technologies.

Credits: Photo: ESA/ISOGAL team


“Star formation is central to everything that Herschel will do,” says Göran Pilbratt, Herschel Project Scientist. The Herschel science programme can be split into three broad strands.

Firstly, Herschel will study the formation and evolution of galaxies when the Universe was roughly half its present age. This is the era when most of the stars in the Universe were forming.

Secondly, Herschel will target star and planet formation, and the subsequent stellar evolution. It will look at the details of how stars form, the environment from which they form and the way they enrich their environment when they die.

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Among its objectives, Herschel will target star and planet formation and evolution. It
will look at the details of how stars form, the environment from which they form and
the way they enrich their environment when they die.

Herschel will chart the build-up of heavy elements in the Universe. Called metals by
astronomers, these chemical elements are everything heavier than hydrogen and
helium.

Credits: AOES Medialab


This work will allow Herschel to chart the build-up of heavy elements in the Universe. Called metals by astronomers, these chemical elements are everything heavier than hydrogen and helium. In the present day, they make up just two percent of the atoms in the Universe. Shortly after the big bang, they were non-existent. They are created in the hearts of stars and scattered into space when the stars die. “Without these elements, there would be no planets or life,” says Pilbratt, “We are literally made of stardust.”

Thirdly, Herschel will look at the primitive bodies in our Solar System. These are the comets and outer solar system bodies. Together they represent fragments left over from the formation of the planets and may hold important clues as to how the Solar System formed.

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Artist's impression of ESA's Herschel satellite, designed to study
the formation of galaxies and stars. It is due for launch in mid
2008, in couple with the ESA Planck satellite that will map the
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to study the early of the
Universe.


Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab

Herschel will have a scientific lifetime of three years. After that, the liquid helium that cools the spacecraft to its working temperature will be depleted and the spacecraft will become too warm. It is therefore essential to achieve the very best use of the spacecraft’s working lifetime.

An Announcement of Opportunity was issued on 1 February asking the scientific community for ‘Key Programmes’ to be proposed. These must satisfy three requirements: they must exploit Herschel’s unique capabilities to address important scientific issues in a comprehensive manner; they must require a large amount of observing time to be used in a uniform and coherent fashion; and they must produce datasets of high archival value.

At the two-day workshop at ESTEC, the scientists in the Herschel Science Centre who are preparing Herschel’s scientific operations met the space telescope’s potential users to help them prepare for the observatory. The workshop contained poster sessions, in which astronomers presented the observations that they would like to make with Herschel. “People were extremely open about what they wanted to do with Herschel. There was a lot of discussion,” says Pilbratt.

The Key Programmes will allow Herschel to build a detailed archive of infrared observations, tailored to the needs of the astronomical community. This means that Herschel will provide a legacy to astronomers that extends for many years after the observational phase of the mission is over.


Source: ESA - Space Science - Herschel
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  • 5 months later...
‘Heart’ of Herschel to be presented to media


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Artist's impression of ESA's Herschel satellite, designed to study
the formation of galaxies and stars. It is due for launch in mid
2008, in couple with the ESA Planck satellite that will map the
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to study the early of the
Universe.

Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab


4 September 2007
ESA PR 27-2007. By the end of 2007, the assembly of the ESA’s Herschel far-infrared space observatory – the latest mission to study the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies – will be completed.

ESA and Astrium are jointly inviting the media to a press conference in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on 19 September 2007, to hear about this revolutionary spacecraft, its scientific objectives, and to view the very heart of its hardware.

The Herschel mission, equipped with the largest telescope ever launched in space (3.5 m diameter), will give astronomers their best capability yet to explore the universe at far-infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths. By measuring the light at these wavelengths, scientists see the ‘cold’ universe. Herschel will give them an unprecedented view, allowing them to see deep into star forming regions, galactic centres and planetary systems.

In order to achieve its objectives and to be able to detect the faint radiation coming from the coolest objects in the cosmos, otherwise ‘invisible’, Herschel’s detectors must operate at very low and stable temperatures. The spacecraft is equipped so as to cool them close to absolute zero (-273.15 ºC), ranging from -271 ºC to only a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero. To have achieved this particular feature alone is a remarkable accomplishment for European industry and science.

The final integration of the various components of the Herschel spacecraft – payload module, cryostat, service module, telescope and solar arrays – will be completed in the next few months. This phase will be followed by a series of tests to get the spacecraft ready for launch at the end of July 2008. Herschel will be launched into space on an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. The launch is shared with Planck, ESA’s mission to study relic radiation from the Big Bang.


Note

The Prime Contractor for the Herschel spacecraft is Thales Alenia Space (Cannes, France). It leads a consortium of industrial partners with Astrium (Germany) responsible for the Extended Payload Module (EPLM, including the Herschel cryostat), Astrium (France) responsible for the telescope, and the Thales Alenia Space industry branch of Torino, Italy, responsible for the Service Module (SVM). There is also a host of subcontractors spread throughout Europe.

The three Herschel instruments were designed and built by consortia of scientists and institutes, with their own national funding. The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) was developed under the coordination of the MPE, Germany; the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) was developed under the coordination of the Cardiff University (United Kingdom); the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) was developed under the coordination of the SRON institute (The Netherlands).


For more information

ESA Media Relations Office
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7299
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690


Herschel Press Day
at Astrium, Friedrichshafen, Germany
19 September 2007
Claude-Dornier-Strasse
88090 Immenstaad

Source: ESA - News
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After reading your thread on the Akari satellite and finding out they plan another mission, it seemed interesting to compare a few related missions.

HST has a 2.4 meter primary mirror (silica glass).

NICMOS (if it still works) uses neon filled cryo-pump for < 75 K.

---

Spitzer has an 85 cm. primary mirror (beryllium).

Superfluid helium II croysat cools science instruments to < 1.4 K.

3.6 - 160 microns

---

Akari's primary mirror was 70 cm (beryllium).

Mission was to make survey-type observations at 50 -180 microns.

They also used an InfraRed Camera for 1.7- 26.5 microns.

Their next mission is-

SPICA (after Akari) will have a 3.5 meter primary mirror (silicon carbide).

Cryo cooled to 1.7 K.

Future mission will study 5-200 microns.

Launch 2015.

---

Herschel Space Telescope has a 3.5 meter primary mirror (silicon carbide).

Superfluid helium II croysat will cool science instruments to 1.7 K.

Mission is to study 60-670 microns.

HIFI: Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared

High Resolution Spectrometer In Two Bands

157 - 211 and 240 - 625 microns

PACS: Photo-Array Camera and Spectrometer

Camera and Spectrometer

57 - 210 microns

SPIRE: Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver

Camera and Low Resolution Spectrometer

200 - 670 microns

---

Next Generation Space Telescope- 6.5 meter primary mirror (beryllium) .

Solid hydrogen cryo-cooler-

includes a Pulse Tube precooler gets the instrument down to 18K

and a Jules-Thomson Loop heat exchanger knocks it down to 7K.

Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) imager/spectrograph

5 - 27 microns

Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) large field of view and high angular resolution.

0.6 - 5 microns

The Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec)

9-square-arcminute field of view simultaneous medium-resolution spectra of

100 objects at 1 - 5 microns; or lower-resolution spectra from 0.6 - 5 microns

Edited by leadbelly
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  • 2 weeks later...
Herschel's heart and brain mated


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Herschel will be the largest space telescope ever launched to date. From a point in space called the 2nd Lagrangian Point (or L2), its 3.5-metre diameter mirror will collect long-wavelength infrared radiation from some of the coolest and most distant objects in the Universe. Herschel will be the only space observatory to cover the range from far-infrared to sub-millimetre wavelengths. The mission is to be launched in July 2008, in tandem with ESA's Planck spacecraft, by an Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou (French Guiana).

Credits: ESA/ AOES Medialab


19 September 2007
Herschel, Europe’s infrared space observatory is being presented to the media today in a joint press event by ESA and Astrium in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Two of the satellite’s most fundamental modules, its ‘heart’ and ‘brain’, have now been mated.

The far-infrared space observatory is ESA’s latest mission that will study the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies. Herschel will carry the largest telescope ever flown in space, giving astronomers their best view yet of the cold and most distant objects in the universe. It will collect very long infrared wavelengths, peeking into star-forming regions, galactic centres and planetary systems.

To protect the sensitive instruments from heat generated during operations and to achieve its challenging objectives, the satellite must operate at very low temperatures. This is why the spacecraft’s brain – or its payload module – hosts a cryostat, a cryogenic module inside which the cold components of the scientific instruments are mounted.

Inside the cryostat the sensitive instrument detectors are cooled down to about -273 ºC (0.3 degrees above absolute zero). This low temperature is achieved using superfluid helium (at about -271 ºC) and an additional cooling stage inside the focal plane units.

The service module is the spacecraft’s heart, which keeps the spacecraft going by caring for all its vital functions. It also carries the ‘warm’ components of the instruments – those that do not require cooling with the cryostat.

Between late July and early August this year, the cold and warm units of the instruments were mated with the cryostat and the service module respectively.

Last week, on 11 September, the cryostat containing the cold instrument units was finally mounted on the service module, mating Herschel’s heart and brain.

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This picture was taken on 11 September during the mating of Herschel's cryostat (an important part of the payload module) and the service module at Astrium's facilities in Friedrichshafen. All that is now left to complete the spacecraft is the solar array and its telescope.

The cryostat contains the sensitive instrument detectors cooled down to about -273ºC (0.3 degrees above absolute zero). The service module is the spacecraft’s heart, which keeps the spacecraft going by caring for all its vital functions. It also carries the ‘warm’ instrument units – those that do not require cooling with the cryostat.

Between late July and early August this year, the cold and warm units of the instruments were mated with the cryostat and the service module respectively.

On 11 September, the cryostat containing the cold instrument units was finally mounted on the service module, mating Herschel’s heart and brain.

This fundamental step will be followed by functional and compatibility testing at Astrium before the spacecraft is sent to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in November for final environmental (thermal, mechanical, acoustic) and functional acceptance tests.

In late December 2007 or early 2008, after the functional tests, the telescope and the solar arrays – two other fundamental parts of the payload module - will be mated to the rest of the spacecraft, completing Herschel.

Credits: Astrium (M. Pikelj)


This fundamental step will be followed by functional and compatibility tests at Astrium before the spacecraft is sent to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in November for final environmental (thermal, mechanical, acoustic) and functional acceptance tests.

In late December 2007 or early 2008, after the functional tests, the telescope and the solar arrays – two other fundamental parts of the payload module - will be mated to the rest of the spacecraft, completing Herschel.

Herschel is scheduled to launch from Europe’s spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana on 31 July 2008, on an Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle. The launch will be shared with Planck, ESA’s mission that will study relic radiation from the Big Bang.

Take a look at the latest multimedia on Herschel

Note:

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This picture shows an artist's impression of the view inside Herschel.

To protect the sensitive instruments from heat generated during operations and to achieve its challenging objectives, the satellite must operate at very low temperatures. This is why the spacecraft’s brain – or its payload module – hosts a ‘cryostat’, a cryogenic module inside which the cold components of the scientific instruments are mounted.

Inside the cryostat the sensitive instrument detectors are cooled down to about -273 ºC (0.3 degrees above absolute zero). This low temperature is achieved using superfluid helium (at about -271 ºC) and an additional cooling stage inside the focal plane units.

The service module is the spacecraft’s heart, which keeps the spacecraft going by caring for all its vital functions. It also carries the ‘warm’ components of the instruments – those that do not require cooling with the cryostat.

Credits: ESA/ AOES Medialab


The Prime Contractor for Herschel is Thales Alenia Space (Cannes, France). It leads a consortium of industrial partners with Astrium (Germany) responsible for the Extended Payload Module (EPLM, including the Herschel cryostat), Astrium (France) responsible for the telescope, and the Thales Alenia Space industry branch of Torino, Italy, responsible for the Service Module (SVM). There is also a host of subcontractors spread throughout Europe.

The three instruments on Herschel were designed and built by consortia of scientists and institutes, with their own national funding. The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) was developed under the coordination of the MPE, Germany; the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) was developed under the coordination of the Cardiff University, United Kingdom; and the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) under the coordination of SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research.


For more information:

Thomas Passvogel, ESA Herschel Project Manager Email: Thomas.Passvogel @ esa.int

Göran Pilbratt, ESA Herschel Project Scientist
Email: Gpilbratt @ rssd.esa.int


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Herschel's cryostat and service module being mated



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Herschel's cryostat and service module being mated



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This is an image of the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared's (HIFI) focal plane unit. Clearly visible are 7 of the 14 mixer sub-assemblies, in which the signal received by the telescope is mixed with the signal generated by the local oscillator.

HIFI is a very high-resolution heterodyne spectrometer. The heterodyne detection principle involves translating the frequency range of the astronomical signal being observed to a lower frequency where it is easier to perform the required measurements.

This is done by mixing the incoming signal with a very stable monochromatic signal, generated by a local oscillator, and extracting the difference frequency for further processing.

HIFI observes in seven bands covering 480 to 1910 gigaHertz.

Credits: SRON



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The Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) contains a camera and low to medium resolution spectrometer. It operates at wavelengths between 55 and 210 micrometres.

The opening of this infrared window by PACS to sensitive photometry and spectroscopy at high spatial resolution will address a wide range of key questions of current astrophysics concerning the origins of stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and the evolution of the Universe.

Credits: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik



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The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) comprises a three-band imaging photometer and an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer. The instrument will be used to undertake large area deep sky photometric imaging surveys and allow follow-up spectroscopic observations of selected sources.

These observations will help tackle two of the most fundamental questions in astronomy: how and when did galaxies form and how do stars form?

Credits: SPIRE Consortium


Source: ESA - News
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  • 1 year later...

Planck Probe To Record the Very Echoes of Creation

Probing the very earliest available evidence of the universe as we know it has already netted a Nobel Prize, but if you understand science at all you know that that's just the beginning. In April the Planck satellite will start recording the very echoes of creation, and that's such a big picture the teams have spent ten years just getting ready to look at the data.

Huge statistical analysis at two data centers (one in Paris and one one in Trieste) are needed to extract information from the data the Planck will receive, and when they practice the take it seriously. As in "The Max Planck institute spending a decade developing software to simulate virtual universes as test cases" serious, which is more seriously than a heart surgeon operating on his firstborn son.

These test cases are versions of the cosmic microwave background, the earliest available information in existence. The universe is thought to have been around for a few hundred thousand years before that, but as it was opaque to radiation nothing survived to echo. Accurate information from the instant it all became transparent, expanding rapidly into the reality we now know (as far as we know now) could make or break many theories of how it all got going.

As well as studying the effects of inflation (or not) on the beginning of the universe, Plank will also gather data on "secondary anisotropies" - or as you might know them, galactic clusters. This thing looks at a question so big, a trillion suns is a side-effect.

Source, The Daily Galaxy;

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/...k-probe-to.html

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  • 2 months later...

11 May 2009

There's a buzz in the Main Control Room as the launch of Herschel and Planck gets closer. The two satellites are scheduled to launch together at 15:12 CEST, 14 May, on an Ariane 5 from ESA's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Several critical events are planned leading up to and after launch.

After launch, Herschel and Planck will be headed to L2, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, where they will operate from independent orbits.

L2 is a local gravitational point that is fixed in the Earth-Sun system and is situated on Earth’s night-side. It is an excellent location for both Herschel and Planck: it allows them to shield their sensitive instruments from solar radiation which may otherwise disturb observations and offers good sky visibility. If they were placed in orbit around Earth, heat from our planet, the Moon and the Sun would interfere with the instruments and telescopes, reducing sensitivity.

More here;

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/herschelplanck...VW10YDUF_0.html

About this mission;

Herschel at a glance

Herschel, ESA's cutting-edge space observatory, will carry the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space. A pioneering mission to study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies, it will help understand how the Universe came to be what it is today.

The first observatory to cover the entire range from far-infrared to sub-millimetre wavelengths and bridge the two, Herschel will explore further in the far-infrared than any previous mission, studying otherwise invisible dusty and cold regions of the cosmos, both near and far.

Herschel will tap into unexploited wavelengths, seeing phenomena out of reach for other observatories, at a level of detail that has not been captured before. 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. The telescope will collect almost twenty times more light than any previous infrared space telescope.

The cutting-edge spacecraft carries three advanced science instruments: two cameras and a very high resolution spectrometer; their detectors are cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero by a sophisticated cryogenic system.

More here;

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/SEMBM00YUFF_0.html

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New European Telescopes to Peer into Obscure Cosmic Corners

While astronomical and cosmological knowledge of the universe has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades, some details remain beyond the grasp of current space- and ground-based telescopes — but not for long.

Two space telescopes, Herschel and Planck, are set to be launched in tandem by the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 14. They will peer deeper into space and time than any telescope in history.

NASA gets most of the attention when it comes to space telescopes, with the Hubble Space Telescope leading the way (Hubble is however a joint project with ESA). But that could soon change.

The observations made by these two European observatories could revolutionize our understanding of our universe, and answer some "basic questions about our place in the universe," said Paul Goldsmith, the NASA project scientist for Herschel at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which provided some of the key technology for the telescopes.

Herschel will be the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever launched into space, and its observations in the far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths of light will allow astronomers to study some of the coldest objects in space, not visible in other wavelengths,

Full release here;

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090512/sc_...recosmiccorners

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There seem to be new things to report in this field every day; these are certainly exciting times!

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There seem to be new things to report in this field every day; these are certainly exciting times!

Yes it certianly does, New things going on each and every day, Its a great time to be alive, These two telescopes will give us some wonderful results,

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Ariane 5 lifts off with Herschel and Planck on board

ESA en route to the origins of the Universe

14 May 2009

ESA PR 10-2009 Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA’s far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Herschel, equipped with the largest mirror ever launched into space, will observe a mostly uncharted part of the electromagnetic spectrum so as to study the birth of stars and galaxies as well as dust clouds and planet-forming discs around stars. In addition, it will be the most effective tool ever devised to look for the presence of water in remote parts of the Universe.

Planck is designed to map tiny irregularities in fossil radiation left over from the very first light in the Universe, emitted shortly after the Big Bang. Planck will have enough sensitivity to reach the experimental limits of what can be observed, thus peering into the early Universe and studying its constituents such as the elusive dark matter and dark energy that continue to be a puzzle to the science community worldwide.

More HERE

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  • 3 weeks later...

Herschel and Planck commissioning has begun

After a perfect injection by the Ariane 5 launcher on 14 May, the critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) for Herschel and Planck has started to wind down, while commissioning of the scientific instruments and subsystems on both spacecraft has begun.

Herschel and Planck are functioning nominally and are now en route to their final orbits around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L2), a point in space 1.5 million km from Earth on the side away from the Sun.

The additional ground stations that enabled near-continuous contact between mission controllers and Herschel and Planck during LEOP have been released; the two are now communicating via their nominally assigned stations, ESA's New Norcia and Cebreros deep space stations, respectively.

Shortly after launch, both spacecraft separated according to plan: Herschel at 15:37:55 CEST followed by Planck at 15:40:25 CEST. This triggered the execution of automatic sequences on board, including acquisition of the spacecraft's orientation in space, configuration of the data handling system and switch-on of the high-frequency radio transmitters.

The first signals from both spacecraft were acquired by ESA's New Norcia and Perth stations at 15:49 CEST. Shortly afterwards, telemetry was received confirming good health for both spacecraft. Both had acquired their nominal sun-pointing attitude and a telemetry check-out performed by the Mission Control Team confirmed their overall status as nominal.

More HERE

Herschel

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Edited by thefinalfrontier
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Planck satellite manoeuvre aims at L2 arrival

5 June 2009

Beginning today, ESA's Planck satellite will carry out a critical mid-course manoeuvre that will place the satellite on its final trajectory for arrival at L2, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, early in July.

The manoeuvre is scheduled to begin at 19:28 CEST on 5 June 2009, and will last for up to 30 hours.

Planck's main thrusters will conduct repeated 'pulse burns' during this time, switching on then off for 6 seconds every minute.

This pulse-burn technique is necessary because Planck is slowly spinning as it travels through space, rotating at 1 rpm. The thrusters, which are fixed to the spacecraft and are not steerable, can only burn when they are oriented in the correct direction, which occurs for 6 seconds during each 60-second rotation.

Planck's cruise to L2

Manoeuvre provides mid-course correction

The manoeuvre is expected to provide an overall change in speed of 550.8 km/hour. As of 5 June, Planck was travelling at a speed of 105 840 km/hour with respect to the Sun and was located 1.19 million km from Earth.

"Throughout the manoeuvre, we will closely monitor the spacecraft behaviour and its dynamical state. Once the manoeuvre is complete, sometime late on Saturday, the Flight Dynamics team will analyse the burn performance and determine Planck's new orbit. Based on the results, we also have a slot available for a 'touch-up' manoeuvre on 17 June," says Matthias Mück, Planck Flight Dynamics specialist at ESOC, ESA's European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany.

Mück says today's manoeuvre is programmed to slightly undershoot the actual desired end-speed, so the touch-up manoeuvre on 17 June will probably be necessary to provide a final 5- to 10-m/s correction.

Intense activity in ESA's Flight Dynamics Room prior to Herschel-Planck launch

Orbit insertion manoeuvre planned early July

After 17 June, the satellite will continue on the last leg of its journey to L2. A final major manoeuvre is planned for the first week in July to boost Planck into its operational orbit: a Lissajous orbit with an average amplitude of about 400 000 km around L2.

This weekend's critical activity will be conducted by the Planck Flight Control Team at ESOC, supported by Flight Dynamics specialists, industry representatives and other experts.

Named after the German Nobel laureate Max Planck (1858-1947), ESA's Planck mission is the first European space observatory whose main goal is the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang, with an accuracy defined by fundamental astrophysical limits.

Source, ESA

Edited by thefinalfrontier
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Great post guys! I cant believe I went to the David Bowie concerts in 1972 ,Big Major Tom fan here!

And His movie "A Man that Fell to Earth"

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Great post guys! I cant believe I went to the David Bowie concerts in 1972 ,Big Major Tom fan here!

And His movie "A Man that Fell to Earth"

Major Tom was a great song, Loved it back when it was happening and still love it today, Now time for some Traveling Wilburys,lol,

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  • 2 weeks later...

Herschel Telescope Makes First Test Observations

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The Herschel Telescope has given us a sneak preview of the infrared observational goodness we can expect from this new space telescope. The protective cryocover was taken off on June 14, and Herschel opened its 'eyes,' using the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer to take a few images of M51, ‘the whirlpool galaxy’ for a first test observation. The telescope obtained images in three colors from the observation, showing this largest of infrared space telescopes ever flown is functioning in fine form. Wonderful!

The above image shows the famous ‘whirlpool galaxy’, first observed by Charles Messier in 1773, who provided the designation Messier 51 (M51). This spiral galaxy lies relatively nearby, about 35 million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici. M51 was the first galaxy discovered to harbor a spiral structure.

The image is a composite of three observations taken at 70, 100 and 160 microns, taken by Herschel’s Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on June 14 and 15.

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As a comparision, to the left is the best image of M51, taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, with the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS), and on the right is Herschel's observation at 160 microns. The obvious advantage of the larger size of the telescope is clearly reflected in the much higher resolution of the image: Herschel reveals structures that cannot be discerned in the Spitzer image.

And here is Herschel’s glimpse of M51 at 70, 100, 160 microns

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So, the shorter the wavelength, the sharper the image, showing the quality of Herschel’s optics.

Thanks, Herschel for a wonderful sneak preview of great images to come!

Source: ESA

Filed under: Astronomy

Source;

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/06/19/he...t-observations/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Coolest spacecraft ever in orbit around L2

3 July 2009

Last night, the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument reached their amazingly low operational temperature of -273.05°C, making them the coldest known objects in space. The spacecraft has also just entered its final orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2.

Planck is equipped with a passive cooling system that brings its temperature down to about -230°C by radiating heat into space. Three active coolers take over from there, and bring the temperature down further to an amazing low of -273.05°C, only 0.1°C above absolute zero - the coldest temperature theoretically possible in our Universe.

Such low temperatures are necessary for Planck’s detectors to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the first light released by the universe only 380 000 yrs after the Big Bang, by measuring its temperature across the sky.

Like measuring the heat of a rabbit on the Moon

The detectors will look for variations in the temperature of the CMB that are about a million times smaller than one degree – this is comparable to measuring from Earth the heat produced by a rabbit sitting on the Moon. This is why the detectors must be cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero (–273.15°C, or zero Kelvin, 0K).

Details on the different stages of the cool-down process are available via the 'Planck in depth' link at right.

More Here

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Thats another record set......Hurray...

Thanks

B???

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