Last week, astrophsicist from all over the world presented the first results from the infrared satellite mission Herschel in Madrid in the Herschel Science Demonstration Initial Results Presentations workshop. It was very exciting to be at this event. Some of the images taken by Herschel could have been from the Hubble Space Telescope. Its quality was quite impressive. In this post I will present some interesting first results but I will also indicate links where you can find more images and results. However being an astrophysicist working on high redshift galaxies my view on this meeting discussed here will be quite biased.

At the same time ESA presented the Herschel Image Gallery (currently the link does not work). Currently there are not many images on this site but this should change in the future. Some institutes published press releases as well.

Now coming to some highlights of this meeting. Dieter Lutz from the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) presented an extragalactic survey done with the instrument PACS onboard Herschel, see also this MPE press release. He showed a two-color image at 100 and 160 micrometer of the best-studied astronomical deep field, the so-called GOODS North Field (see figure 1). I am being part of this huge collaboration and currently, I use these images in order to investigate infrared galaxies at the distante universe. First result of this survey is that about 60 per cent of the extragalatic infrared background is detected in single sources (infrared galaxies).

Another highliight of this conference was the talk by the british astrophysicist Seb Oliver University of Sussex).  He presented images from the same field but taken at longer wavelenghts (250, 350 and 500 micrometer) with the instrument SPIRE, see also press release by the University of Sussex. I was impressed by the fact that Herschel discovered already about 27.000 infrared galaxies between redshifts from 1 to 5-6 and thus increased the number of known sources of this galaxy population by a factor of greater than 10, and this only in the first weeks of scientific operation. The reddish objects in figure 2 are excellent candidates for being at extreme redshifts. Infrared galaxies have the highest star formation rates (several thousand solar masses per year) of known galaxies and are important to understand the evolution of galaxies in the distant universe. Infrared galaxies are often the product of the merger of two spiral galaxies.

However, exciting science is also done within our galaxy. Philippe Andre (CEA Saclay) impressed all of us with fascinating infrared images in not before known resolution of a star formation region in the constellation Aquila, see also ESA press release. In the optical this is a so-called dark cloud. The inside is a stellar nursery of several hundred new-forming stars, 100 of them being protostars. The images taken by Herschel reveal the inside of this dark cloud and show huge filaments resp. clouds of dust. The two bluish regions in Figure 3 are hydrogen being illuminated by newly born stars.

It is also possible to carry out spectroscopic observations with Herschel. This allows the scientists to analyze the chemical composition and physical condidtion of the observed astronomical objects. Few weeks before this workshop, the first Herschel spectra were shortly shown. The first scientific interpretation were presented in Madrid in front of more than 200 astrophysicist from all over the world.

The presented results are accessible for everyone below this link and range from trans-neptunian objects to the highest redshift quasar. Indeed, it was a very interesting and exciting conference which exceeded my already high expectations. 

See you at the next blog,

Helmut Dannerbauer 

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This week Madrid will be the center of the world of infrared astronomy. Mid May of this year the infrared saellite Herschel was launched with an Ariane 5. In the last months a large number of scientists worked hard to get Herschel ready for its scientific observations. Both the verification of the functioning and the calibration of the three instruments PACS, SPIRE and HIFI were carried out.

This period was followed by the so called Science Demonstration Phase. The aim of this several weeks lasting phase is to demonstrate the scientific capability of Herschel and its limitation. To do this, several observations of guaranteed time projects and accepted proposals have been selected out. From 17-18 december in Madrid, scientists will present the first results of this observing period in the Herschel Science Demonstration Initial Results Presentations workshop.

More than 200 astrophsicist from all over the world will participate on this meeting. In addition, this will be a great opportunity to exchange first experiences with Herschel data. Being part of a guaranteed time project, I will participate as well. I am looking forward for the first Herschel results. Definitely, unexpected results will be presented as well and probably this venue could be accompanied by some press releases. 

See you at the next blog,

Helmut Dannerbauer 

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