Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy

摘要

Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009, and is now an operational ESA spaceobservatory offering unprecedented observational capabilities in thefar-infrared and submillimetre spectral range 55-671 {\mu}m. Herschel carries a3.5 metre diameter passively cooled Cassegrain telescope, which is the largestof its kind and utilises a novel silicon carbide technology. The sciencepayload comprises three instruments: two direct detection cameras/mediumresolution spectrometers, PACS and SPIRE, and a very high-resolution heterodynespectrometer, HIFI, whose focal plane units are housed inside a superfluidhelium cryostat. Herschel is an observatory facility operated in partnershipamong ESA, the instrument consortia, and NASA. The mission lifetime isdetermined by the cryostat hold time. Nominally approximately 20,000 hours willbe available for astronomy, 32% is guaranteed time and the remainder is open tothe worldwide general astronomical community through a standard competitiveproposal procedure.