A wealth of infrared stories

this week i'm reporting from the Herschel First Results Symposium, ESLAB 2010, held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. stated this way it does sound cool!

and finally my first 3 stories for ESA's Science & Technology website are online... they're intended to some sort of "interested" readership, but I guess it'll do no harm posting them here as well... :-)

they're about ESA's brand new space observatory, Herschel, which was launched almost a year ago and is now peering at the skies in the far-infrared domain of the electromagnetic spectrum.

the stories tell about some of the first results about 3 different types of objects on 3 very different cosmic scales: far, far away galaxies, massive stars forming in our own Galaxy and tiny water molecules in the regions where stars are formed. quite a spread of topics: take your pick!

Herschel reveals galaxies in the GOODS fields in a brand new light
The discovery of a previously unresolved population of galaxies in the GOODS fields and the first measurements of properties of galaxies in the almost unexplored far-infrared domain are among the first exciting scientific results achieved by Herschel's PACS and SPIRE instruments. These findings confirm the extraordinary capabilities of ESA's new infrared space observatory to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies. More...

Herschel unveils rare massive stars in the act of forming
New images from ESA's Herschel space observatory reveal high-mass protostars around two ionised regions in our Galaxy. The detection of these rare stars in an early phase of evolution is key to understanding the mysterious formation of massive stars. More...


Herschel's HIFI follows the trail of cosmic water
Herschel's HIFI instrument was especially designed to follow the water trail in the Universe over a wide range of scales, from the Solar System out to extragalactic sources. Early results, presented this week at the Herschel First Results Symposium, demonstrate how HIFI uses water to probe the physical and chemical conditions in different regions of the cosmos. More...

Image credits: ESA/PACS Consortium/PEP Key Programme Consortium; ESA, PACS & SPIRE Consortia, A. Zavagno (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille) for the Herschel HOBYS and Evolution of Interstellar Dust Key Programmes; ESA and the HIFI consortium; D. Johnstone for the WISH Key Programme (Background image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.T. Megeath, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA).