Herschel Shows Its Capability
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By Frank Morring, Jr.
Astronomers are eagerly awaiting a chance to try out Europe's Herschel infrared telescope, the largest ever sent to space, after test observations with all three instruments proved promising.
Now approaching its operational position at the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, Herschel's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (Spire) produced an image June 24, using the galaxy Messier 66 in the constellation Leo as one of its targets. Collected at 250 microns before the Spire instrument and its software were calibrated, the results show clear improvement over imagery collected at 160 microns by the 0.85-m Spitzer telescope.
Herschel's 3.5-meter mirror also helped produce first-light results with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) and the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS). HIFI, a seven-band high-resolution spectrometer, spotted ionized carbon, carbon monoxide and water in the DR21 star-forming region in the constellation Cygnus.
Scientists turned PACS, an imaging photometer and integral field line spectrometer for studying how nebulae evolve, on the Cat's Eye Nebula that astronomer William Herschel discovered in 1786. Routine science is expected to begin in November, after the end of the performance verification phase.
Artist's concept of Herschel telescope: European Space Agency
