sagansense:

World’s Largest Infrared Space Telescope Shuts Down Forever

After nearly four years mapping the “hidden universe,” the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space has reached the end of its life, European Space Agency officials say.

The $1.4 billion Herschel Space Observatory has exhausted the vital supply of liquid helium coolant that allowed it make the most sensitive and detailed observations of the cosmos in infrared light, ESA officials announced Monday (April 29).

The infrared space telescope’s official end was recorded by a ground station in Australia, which recorded an increase in temperature for all of the spacecraft’s instruments during the telescope’s daily communications session. It began its mission in May 2009. [Amazing Photos from the Herschel Space Telescope]

“Herschel has offered us a new view of the hitherto hidden universe, pointing us to a previously unseen process of star birth and galaxy formation, and allowing us to trace water through the universe from molecular clouds to newborn stars and their planet-forming discs and belts of comets,” ESA’s Herschel project scientist Göran Pilbratt said in a statement.

Named for famed 18th century astronomer William Herschel, the space telescope was the most powerful infrared observatory ever launched to space until it stopped functioning this week. It has a main mirror 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) across nearly 1.5 times larger than Hubble Space Telescope, and was designed to chart the universe in the far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths of light.

“Herschel gave us the opportunity to peer into the dark and cold regions of the universe that are invisible to other telescopes,”> said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions. The U.S. space agency was a partner with ESA in the Herschel mission.

The Herschel space observatory is responsible for some amazing images of far-off cosmic wonders, such as its dazzling views of the Eagle Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy. Its helium-cooled instruments allowed astronomers to study far away starburst galaxies and star formation closer to home in the Milky Way. The coolant kept Herschel’s instruments chilled to a temperature of minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 271 degrees Celsius), but that supply was expected to evaporate over time.

“It feels like losing a member of the family,” Herschel mission officials wrote in Twitter post at the mission’s end. “Almost 4 incredibly intense years in space.”

The Herschel observatory collected more than 35,000 scientific observations and 25,000 hours of data. According to ESA officials, that plethora of data will be Herschel’s main contribution to the world of science.

“The archive will become the legacy of the mission,” ESA officials explained in a statement. “It is expected to provide even more discoveries than have been made during the lifetime of the Herschel mission.”

NASA scientists said the Herschel mission’s effect on astronomy will far outlast the four-year mission itself.

“Herschel has improved our understanding of how new stars and planets form, but has also raised many new questions,” said Paul Goldsmith, NASA Herschel project scientist at JPL, said in a statement. “Astronomers will be following up on Herschel’s discoveries with ground-based and future space-based observatories for years to come.”

The space telescope has also paved the way for future missions focused on observing the universe in infrared wavelengths, ESA officials added.

“The mission resulted in a number of technological advancements applicable to future space missions and potential spin-off technologies,” ESA officials said. “The mission saw the development of advanced cryogenic systems, the construction of the largest telescope mirror ever flown in space, and the utilization of the most sensitive direct detectors for light in the far-infrared to millimeter range.”

Stay Curious, Watch: The Herschel Story (via space.com)

image 1: This artist’s illustration shows the European Space Agency’s infrared Herschel Space Obsevatory set against a background image of the Vela C star-forming region. The space telescope launche din 2009 and ended its mission in 2013. credit: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortia, T. Hill, F. Motte, Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay, CEA/IRFU – CNRS/INSU – Uni. Paris Diderot, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium

image 2: Each of the thousands of dots in this image is an entire galaxy containing billions of stars, revealed in a region of space called the Lockman hole, which allows a clear line of sight out into the distant universe, as seen by the Herschel Space Observatory. See more amazing images obtained by Herschel since its launch in May, 2009

image 3: ESA Herschel space observatory image of Andromeda (M31) using both PACS and SPIRE instruments to observe at infrared wavelengths of 70 mm (blue), 100 mm (green) and 160 mm and 250 mm combined (red). Image released Jan. 28, 2013. credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz

(via itsfullofstars)

stuffmomnevertoldyou:

explore-blog:

Yesteryear’s stereotype-defiers: Kick-ass vintage public domain photos of women in science.

Go STEM women of yesteryear.

 

itsfullofstars:

First Image of Mars

Taken by the Viking 1 lander shortly after it touched down on Mars, this image is the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars. It was taken on July 20, 1976. The primary objectives of the Viking mission, which was composed of two spacecraft, were to obtain high-resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface and search for evidence of life on Mars.

(Source: crookedindifference)

stuffmomnevertoldyou:

Women’s History Month fun continues with our homage to 50s housewives, and seminal book that spoke of a problem that “has no name.” Fittingly, “The Feminine Mystique” also turned 50 earlier this year.

The Atlantic interviewed Gail Collins about its significance:

The goal of being a full-time housewife made so much sense earlier because you didn’t have the option of going to college and becoming a brain surgeon. The idea that you could be running your own shop was incredibly empowering. Women who did this full-time were a critical economic factor in their household, as important as their husbands. They manufactured most of the things the family needed.

Later, women who devoted their lives to the domestic arts didn’t get the respect that the farm wife had gotten because they had no economic role. That’s when they came up with a vision of the “total” woman, the woman celebrated in women’s magazines, the middle-class woman, the moral compass. Men were in the marketplace and no longer had time to be moral compasses. This job was elevated emotionally but didn’t have any economic point, so there was a loss of power and respect in a country where the economic role is everything. Betty Friedan was born into this era, in which women still had all those issues, but being a housewife, which used to be exhausting, wasn’t all that hard anymore. Raising children was hard but only lasted for a short chunk of a woman’s life. Friedan wasn’t only a housewife—she was a freelance writer and had other roles. But her complaints about that one role, the power of her own rage and dissatisfaction seemed to resonate amazingly.

taktophoto:

Tale of nature from Vyacheslav Mishchenko

smithsonian:

Victorian Parlor Collage, c. 1880 from Smithsonian American Art Museum

In the 1840s, photography was introduced in the U.S. allowing a wider range of Americans to afford portraits and decorative images. The parlor became the center of middle-class domestic life, a place where objects such as painted tintypes and hand-colored photographs reflected a family’s aesthetics, status and history.

Collages like the one shown here are typical of the “scrapbook houses” made by young, middle-class girls in the 19th century, helping to prepare them for domestic life through designing the interior spaces that would one day convey their families’ status and values.

“Pictures in the Parlor” examines decorative images from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century that were used in domestic interiors. More on the history, practice and power of photography at the Smithsonian Archives’ Click! Photography Changes Everything