SATLASFar infrared · Space
Herschel
Herschel Space Observatory
EndedEnded 29 April 2013, after starting 14 May 2009.
A 3.5 m passively cooled telescope with three instruments cooled by superfluid helium: PACS and SPIRE imaged and took spectra from 55 to 671 µm, and HIFI, a heterodyne spectrometer, resolved molecular linesspectral lineEmission or absorption at a specific frequency from an atomic or molecular transition. Its strength gives abundance and temperature; its Doppler shift gives line-of-sight velocity. at very high spectral resolutionspectral resolutionHow finely a spectrograph separates wavelengths, quoted as resolving power R = λ/Δλ (optical, infrared) or energy resolution ΔE in eV (X-rays). R ~ 100 measures redshifts of faint galaxies; R ~ 100,000 measures stellar radial velocities.. Mapped cold dust in star-forming filaments and dust-obscured star formation in galaxies until its helium ran out in 2013.
- Operator
- ESA
- Orbit
- Sun–Earth L2
- Aperture
- 3.5 m
- Passband
- 55 µm – 671 µm
- Launch
- 14 May 2009
- End
- 29 April 2013
Passband
Sky coverage
Pointed observationspointed observationObserving chosen targets, usually selected by peer review in annual proposal cycles, as opposed to surveying the sky systematically. Gives depth on few objects; the total area observed stays small. and large mapping programmes, including the Hi-GAL survey of the Galactic planeGalactic planeThe plane of the Milky Way's disc, a band around the sky at Galactic latitude b ≈ 0°. Dense in stars, gas and dust: rich for stellar work, crowded and heavily extincted for extragalactic surveys, which usually avoid it. and extragalactic fields such as H-ATLAS and HerMES.
Archives
Sources
Verified 15 November 2026.