Astronomy Ireland Public Lecture Report

Herschel:
The Biggest Ever Space Telescope

Lecture Report

Trinity College, Dublin

On Monday 9th May, a large group of astronomy enthusiasts gathered together in the Schrodinger Theatre in Trinity College to hear Dr. Chris North of BBC’s ‘The sky at night’ give a very exciting lecture about the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel is part of the European Space Agency’s Space programme and it has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. At 3.5-metres in diameter the mirror will collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In addition, Herschel is the only space observatory to cover a spectral range from the far infrared to sub-millimetre.

Dr. North gave us a detailed picture of the components of Herschel and described what each of its parts are responsible for. He took us on a fascinating and informative journey from the birth of Herschel and its early years under construction, to its launch on May 14th 2009, and its current home, 1.5 million Km from Earth at L2 .

L2 is one of the so-called Lagrangian points, discovered by mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange. Lagrangian points are locations in space where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body balance each other. Therefore, they can be used by spacecraft to 'hover'. L2 is located 1.5 million kilometres directly 'behind' the Earth as viewed from the Sun. It is about four times further away from the Earth than the Moon ever gets and orbits the Sun at the same rate as the Earth.

L2 is also home to other ESA missions and Herschel’s launch partner Planck. Both space probes were launched together on an Ariane 5 rocket on 14 May 2009 from ESA’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. We were treated to a very exciting live video of the launch and subsequent computer simulation of their trajectory in outer space. Dr North treated a captivated audience to some amazing images from Planck.

After this extremely interesting lecture, the group went to The Lombard Inn to enjoy some complimentary food and to chat to Dr North and other guests.

If you could not attend the lecture, order a copy of the DVD HERE

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Acknowledgment: Astronomy Ireland would like to thank the TCD Astrophysics Research Group for hosting AI public lectures in Trinity College Dublin.

 

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