Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Herschel telescope switched off (BBC)
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Paris
The billion-euro Herschel space telescope has been switched off.
Controllers on Monday emptied the satellite's fuel tanks and commanded the observatory to sever all communications.
The "passivated" spacecraft is now in a slow drift around the Sun, about 2.14 million km from Earth.
With its 3.5m mirror and three state-of-the-art instruments, Herschel was the most powerful observatory of its kind ever put in space.
***
Decommissioning became necessary when Herschel used up the last of its superfluid helium coolant.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22914076
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
