This far-infrared view of the spiral galaxy Messier 51 is the first image taken by the Herschel space observatory. This spacecraft, equipped with a 3.5 m mirror – the largest ever sent into space – was launched together with the Planck mission on 14 May (The ESA Planck spacecraft heads off to its final destination after succeddful launch). In its final orbit at a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth in the opposite direction to the Sun, Herschel will be in an ideal location for observing the infrared and sub-millimetre sky, undisturbed by the radiation from the Sun, Earth and Moon. While the commissioning and performance verification of the two missions continue, this image of the "whirlpool galaxy" by the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument on Herschel already demonstrates the observatory's unique capabilities. It is a composition of images taken in three far-infrared bands at 70, 100 and 160 μm shown in blue, green and red, respectively.
Image credit: ESA and the PACS Consortium.
CERN Courier
Jul 15, 2009