Herschel & Planck space telescopes set to launch Apr 16

[Bill McBlueState]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7926546.stm

Europe's Herschel and Planck space telescopes have finally come together.

The satellites now share a common cleanroom at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, from where they will be despatched into orbit on 16 April.

...

Herschel - the bigger of the two at 7m in height - is a far-infrared and sub-millimetre telescope which will investigate how stars and galaxies form and how they evolve.

Planck will survey the Cosmic Microwave Background - a "fossil light" that pervades the entire Universe and is detectible at radio wavelengths. It should provide new insights into how the cosmos came into being, and why it looks the way it does now.

...

My research group at the University of Toledo has a key project with Herschel to observe star formation in Orion, so I'm anxiously awaiting the launch.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. Excellent!

My favorite satellites peer outward!

[Bill McBlueState]

2. rescheduled for Apr 29

I haven't quite pinned down the reason yet, but the launch has been pushed back to April 29. Still pretty reasonable.

[steven johnson]

3. European Space Agency will launch Planck and Herschel Thursday

On Thursday the anticipated launch of the two satellites will finally take place. Planck spacecraft will search the skies for faint traces of radiation left over from the universe's explosive big bang birth to The aim is to discover how matter first formed and later coalesced. Herschel will have the largest telescope mirror ever put in orbit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/10/space-sat...