Freitag, 8. April 2022 · 20:00 · English lecture

The Herschel Space Observatory

Herschel-Jahr 2022 / The 2ooth death anniversary of William Herschel 2022 :

The Herschel Space Observatory (HSO)

Dr. Jeroen de Jong (Observers Group at Deutsches Museum)
Lecture in English

Friday, 8 April 2022, 8 p.m.
at Volksternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

The Herschel satellite was the largest space observatory ever built. It was operational from 2009 until 2013. With its 3.5-meter-mirror it took images and spectra of unprecedented resolution. Herschel detected cold sources in the universe at low infrared wavelengths. Its observations helped to sort out many questions about the formation of planets, stars and the whole universe. The speaker will present his own experiences with the mission and its highlights as he has contributed to PACS, one of Herschel’s three instruments.

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Image credit NASA / JPL

Herschel and James Webb at L2 – aiming for the early infrared universe

Hubble successor James Webb is neither the first infrared space telescope mission (FIRST rather being the original name of the HSO, as an acronym for Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope) nor the only space telescope at the Lagrangian point L2. Launched in 2009, the 3.5 m mirror of the Herschel Space Observatory remains the largest single piece mirror in space to date, much bigger than the 2.4 m mirror of Hubble. Named after William Herschel, discoverer of the infrared, whose 200th death anniversary we celebrate this year, the HSO is a predecessor to the James Webb Space Telescope, both circling L2 now, that we would like to remember while the JWST is preparing for its own deep views in the Herschel frequency.

Advance booking required. Ticket sales starts on 1 March 2022.

Advance ticket booking

Due to the limited number of seats we recommend ordering your tickets in good time.