The Herschel telescope, launched in May 2009 to study the formation of stars, has finally closed its eyes to the universe after exhausting its reserves of helium liquid, announced Monday the European Space Agency (ESA). In early March, ESA warned that the satellite would bow out “within weeks” after the complete evaporation of some 2300 liters of helium needed to cool its instruments at a level close to absolute zero (- 271 ° C). With over 25,000 hours of recorded data since its launch, “Herschel has given us an entirely new view of the universe, showing us things that we were hidden so far as processes never seen the birth ‘star and galaxy formation, “said in a statement Göran Pilbratt, Project Scientist at ESA. The telescope also helped astronomers to detect the presence of water molecule crucial for any life forms, “everywhere in the universe,” he said.
In January, the data also provided new information on the asteroid Apophis, which should barely touch the Earth in 2029 and then in 2036. Even ran dry helium, Herschel will continue to communicate with ground stations. In early May, it should be removed from active duty and placed on a siding in heliocentric orbit (around the Sun), the ESA said. With a life expectancy of at least three years, Herschel is named after the physicist William Herschel who discovered infrared in 1800. Its main mirror 3.5 m in diameter is the largest and most powerful infrared telescope into space. “The end of the Herschel observations in no way means the end of the mission we still many discoveries to be made” from the observations he harvested, ensures Göran Pilbratt
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