30 Apr 2013
Herschel loses its cool
The scientific instruments on board Herschel are housed inside the black tank below its 3.5m diameter main mirror. To observe far-infrared and sub-millimetre light, these instruments were cooled by a tank of liquid helium, which has now been exhausted. Image credit: ESAA Cardiff instrument on Europe's Herschel Space Observatory has completed its scientific operations as the spacecraft has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant.
Cardiff University astronomers led the international team that designed, built and operate the SPIRE instrument on board Herschel. Using SPIRE data, astronomers from have already made ground-breaking discoveries about the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and planets. But this has only scratched the surface, and there is far more still to come from the immense archive.
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