Orion and Perseus Seen by Planck

Orion and Perseus Seen by Planck

Apr 26

New images from Planck, ESA's cosmological space observatory, show star formation in Orion and Perseus. These lovely images show cold prestellar cores about to burst into life as protostars. Planck is able to show a level of detail not yet seen at these wavelengths and to map the regions in a fantastic new way. These images show radiation with wavelengths of 10 mm (red), 850 microns (green) and...

Herschel and Planck Launch Minute-by-Minute

Herschel and Planck Launch Minute-by-Minute

May 11

On Thursday (at 13:12 UT) Arianespace will send into orbit two scientific satellites for the European Space Agency: the Herschel space telescope and the Planck scientific observatory. The launch process which will take these amazing new instruments from the ground into space takes less than an hour! I will be watching the event live from Cardiff (you can watch it here) and was curious as to how...

Herschel and Planck Ready

Herschel and Planck Ready

May 06

Herschel and Planck have a launch window confirmed: May 14th (shortly after lunchtime here in the UK). They will be taken up on board an Ariane 5 from ESA's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory  has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. Herschel's mission is to collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the...