01-February-2008, 03:25 PM
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Vulcan Moderator
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Posts: 24,225
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Cool spacedust survey goes into orbit
Quote:
University of Nottingham astronomers will be studying icy cosmic dust millions of light years away — using the biggest space telescope ever built.
Experts in the School of Physics and Astronomy will be using the Herschel Space Observatory, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, as part of a giant survey to find out more about some of the coldest objects in the Universe.
The Herschel Space Observatory, launched by the European Space Agency this Summer, promises to take our knowledge of the far reaches of space to a new level. It will have the largest mirror of any space telescope — twice the size of the famous Hubble — that will detect the ‘glow’ of spacedust at around -250C, rather than the light from stars.
As well as being able to see star-forming regions very nearby in our own galaxy, it will be able to see galaxies forming when the universe was in its infancy, more than ten billion years ago.
The University of Nottingham is a leading partner in this new survey using Herschel, which is the first space telescope to operate in the sub-millimetre part of the spectrum, between the far-infrared and microwaves. Much of this light — 0.055 to 0.67 mm in wavelength — cannot penetrate the atmosphere and so the only way to study it is from space.
Dr Loretta Dunne, of The University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, is leading the working group on dust in local galaxies. Dr Dunne said: “The survey will be a quantum leap in our understanding of dust in the local Universe.
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