WIREDGOV

The World's largest space telescope, ESA's Herschel Space Observatory (link opens in a new window), has celebrated one year of spectacular science by showcasing some of the latest groundbreaking research at the Royal Astronomical Society (link opens in a new window) in London on 14 January 2011.

Herschel is a far-infrared telescope, and its three scientific instruments detect light with a wavelength typically several hundred times longer than the visible light that we see. Instead of seeing stars, this allows Herschel to observe gas and dust between the stars. It is a flagship mission of the UK Space Agency, which funds the UK's involvement in the UK-led SPIRE instrument. SPIRE was built by 18 institutes in eight countries, led by Prof Matt Griffin of Cardiff University. The instrument was assembled at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Herschel is observing objects in our galaxy and beyond, in an effort to understand when the first stars formed, how galaxies evolved into those we see around us today, and how planets form.

More information and images are available on the UK Space Agency website (link opens in a new window).

Image caption

The Andromeda Galaxy as seen in the far-infrared (left) and visible (right), with a composite in the centre. The dark dust lanes seen in visible light are glowing in far-infrared light when observed by Herschel. As our nearest large galactic neighbour, studies of Andromeda can help us understand our own Galaxy, as well as much those much more distant.

The Herschel image was takes as part of the HELGA project, led by Dr Jacopo Fritz, Universiteit Ghent, and includes astronomers at Cardiff University and the University of Nottingham.