First Light Images From Herschel Satellite Released

davecl writes "The first images from the Herschel satellite have been released by ESA. The images are of the galaxy M51 and show a lot of structure and other features never seen before. Coverage of these results can be found on the ESA website and on the Herschel mission blog. There's a lot of work still to be done on tuning the satellite and instruments for optimum performance, but these very early results already show the promise of this mission. I work on this project and can say that these results are really impressive at this early stage!"

Re:first image

[buchner.johannes]

found it: http://www.physorg.com/news161611128.html [physorg.com]

Re:first image

[EdZ]

Those were not taken by Herschel's main camera, as that was only uncovered a few days ago [esa.int].

Re:first image

[ogre7299]

Yes, they were taken with one of the main instruments, PACS. PACS has been switched on since shortly after launch. Yes, the cover was only just opened, but this was one of the objects they viewed shortly after the cover was opened. M51 was chosen because they could directly compare it with Spitzer Space telescope images taken at similar wavelengths.

http://herschel.esac.esa.int/SneakPreview.shtml [esa.int]

Re:one giant leap, but we're still falling behind

[jeffb (2.718)]

The maximum resolution of a telescope is proportional to the diameter of its objective (main lens or mirror), and inversely proportional to the wavelength at which it's observing. This is observing at wavelengths 100 times longer than the visible and near-IR instruments like Hubble observe, so it's at a 100x disadvantage coming out of the starting gate.

We've never had images anywhere near this good in this part of the spectrum. I'm very sorry that they offend you.

But you're right. We definitely shouldn't field any instruments until we're ready to deliver, power and support an array at Neptune's distance. After all, it's not like we learn anything from intermediate steps. Just look at all the money we wasted, wasted, on Hubble. Or Palomar. Or Galileo's first telescope. (After all, who needed to know that Jupiter had moons, or Saturn had rings?)

Hubble comparison -- M51 in visible light

[electrostatic]

Herschel views in far infrared -- 70 to 160 um (micrometers) in TFA example. Here's a Hubble M51 shot in visible light which is sub-micron wavelength. The shorter wavelength permits greater resolution for a given mirror size.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080614.html [nasa.gov]