The Herschel Space Observatory
Transcript of The Herschel Space Observatory
The Herschel Space Observatory:
stellar surprises and galaxies galore
Dr Haley Gomez
The smoky Universe
The silver lining
But it’s tricky...
INFRARED = recycled starlight warm dust
optical sub-mm
SUBMILLIMETRE = recycled starlight from colder dust
galaxies in the distant Universe are very dusty!
the 6 year old Universe
a surprising result…
The Herschel SpaceObservatory
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New window - 55 to 672 um
Three novel instruments - photometry in 6 colours, image spectroscopy, high resolution spectroscopy
Superior sensitivity
Largest mirror = 3.5m
• PACS (57 - 210 μm)• Imaging photometer• Grating spectrometer
• SPIRE (200 - 670 μm)• Imaging photometer• Fourier transform spectrometer
•HIFI (157- 212 and 240 - 625μm)•Heterodyne spectrometer
PACSSPIRE
HIFI
Instruments
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What can we do with Herschel?
424 days since launch5.39 light seconds from Earth
Open Time by Country of Proposal PI
- Density, temperatures, different conditions - Probes of star forming clouds and young dusty galaxies
Molecules
Solar system666 hrs
how do stars form?
3710 hrs
1286 hrsstar death
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~6000 hrsJosh Barnes
galaxies
13 billion
12 billion
8 billion
5 billion
10 100 1,000 10,000
10,000
1000
100
10
1
0.1
1.5 billion light years
Brig
htne
ss
Wavelength (micrometres)
Some magic
Millenium simulation
the cosmic web
First Light and Science Demonstration
MoleculesCarbon star CW LEO
MESS
Molecules - OrionHIFI HEXOS
SPIRE
Credit: ESA and the PACS consortium, E.F. van Dishoeck for the WISH Key Programme Consortia
Water everywhere~ million oceans
star formation
Matthew Bates, Exeter
Gould Belt
copyright Robert Gendler 2007
Credit: ESA and the SPIRE & PACS consortia, for the HOBYS Key Programme Consortium
copyright Robert Gendler 2007
Hi-GAL - Aquila Filaments of star formation
Galactic Plane
Dust heated by stars
RCW120
Bubble blown by hot star
Young, forming star
HOBYS
Hi-GAL - Vulpecula
Galactic Plane
Bubble blown by stars
RCW120
“Hole in Space”
HOPS
Galaxies SINGS
Herschel Reference Survey
NGS
M86 M86
NGC4402 NGC4402
NGC4438 NGC4438
HRS & HeViCS
Galaxies Galore
HerMES
H-ATLAS
Small dust cloud
Galactic “cirrus”
Hot off the press
www.herschel.cf.ac.uk
Herschel Special Issue First Science Meeting
May 2010http://herschel.esac.esa.int/SDP_IR_wkshop.shtml
Herschel Special Issue First Papers
June 2010
What’s next?
SAFARI - SPICA Herschel but at 4.5K
FIRI
The next generation