What are Herschel's first results?

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