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| Paper: |
First Year In-Flight and Early Science with the Herschel Space Observatory |
| Volume: |
442, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XX (ADASSXX) |
| Page: |
225 |
| Authors: |
García-Lario, P. |
| Abstract: |
Herschel, an ESA space observatory equipped with science instruments provided
by European-led Principal Investigator consortia with important participation
from NASA, was launched on 14 May 2009. With its 3.5m diameter primary mirror,
Herschel is the largest telescope ever launched into space. Herschel carries
three science instruments whose focal plane units are cryogenically
cooled inside a superfluid helium cryostat. The PACS and SPIRE instruments
provide broadband imaging photometry in six bands centered on 75, 100, 160, 250,
350, and 500 μm and imaging spectroscopy over the range 55–672 μm. The
HIFI instrument provides very high-resolution heterodyne spectroscopy over the
ranges 157–212 and 240–625 μm. The prime science objectives of Herschel are
intimately connected to the physics of, and processes in, the interstellar medium
(ISM) in the widest sense. Near and far in both space and time, they stretch from
solar system objects and the relics of the formation of the sun and our solar
system, through star formation in the ISM and the feedback material returned by
evolved stars to the ISM, to the star formation history of the universe,
galaxy evolution, and cosmology. The very first observational results from
Herschel already show that it will have strong impact on research in all of
these fields, as exemplified by the few observational results presented here,
These are just the tip of the iceberg of what is yet to come in the remaining
2 years of operations. |
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