ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time--->ESA-Herschel and Planck

'The biggest mirror in space'
BBC News

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Watch the launch live at the VIDEO CORNER of --->Arianespace
Only twelve hours left to go from now on....

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Cosmo will get crunching data from Planck. Being able to use it correctly (credit controversy, memory leaks, missing files, missing Admin) will be another story.

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me@rescam.org

Ariane 5 launched. The audio was supposed to be English or French but neither worked.
Tullio

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Herschel shows breadth of vision


Europe's Herschel space observatory is set to become one of the most powerful tools ever to study the Universe.
The "first light" data from its three instruments demonstrates a remarkable capability even though their set-up is still not complete.
Galaxy images released on Friday by the European Space Agency show detail previously unseen in the objects.
The pictures - and the thousands that will follow - should give new insights on star formation and galaxy evolution.
"We have some excellent images; they're not calibrated, but they look spectacular," said Dr Göran Pilbratt, Esa's Herschel project scientist.
"They tell you we are working; it's just fantastic," he told BBC News.

Different view
Herschel is sensitive to light at long wavelengths - in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre range (55 to 672 microns).
Observations at these longer wavelengths do not produce the "pretty pictures" obtained at shorter wavelengths, such as the visible light detected by the famous Hubble telescope.
What they can do, however, is see features in celestial objects that are invisible to Hubble; and with Herschel's giant 3.5m mirror, the detail becomes extremely rich.
Friday's release includes the first two galaxy observations using the European telescope's SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) instrument.
SPIRE has pictured M74 (also known as NGC 628), a face-on spiral galaxy located about 24 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces; and M66 (also known as NGC 3627), a barred spiral galaxy located about 36 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.
What Herschel sees in these objects is not their stars but the dusty clouds of gas that give rise to stars.



More details
Europe's Herschel space observatory is set to become one of the most powerful tools ever to study the Universe.
The "first light" data from its three instruments demonstrates a remarkable capability even though their set-up is still not complete.
Galaxy images released on Friday by the European Space Agency show detail previously unseen in the objects.
The pictures - and the thousands that will follow - should give new insights on star formation and galaxy evolution.
"We have some excellent images; they're not calibrated, but they look spectacular," said Dr Göran Pilbratt, Esa's Herschel project scientist.
"They tell you we are working; it's just fantastic," he told BBC News.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Vextor Homepage | Vextor Blog

Interesting, Very Interesting(Disappears behind some plants, As in Laugh-In(US TV Show from the 60's)). :D

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's