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On May 14th, ESA’s Herschel and Planck satellites will be launched together into space where they will collect the most detailed information yet about the birth and evolution of our Universe and its stars and galaxies. The UK is playing major roles in both missions, with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Herschel
Carrying the largest telescope to be flown in space, the Herschel Space Observatory will view the Universe at far infrared wavelengths. It will peer through obscuring clouds of dust to look at the early stages of star birth and galaxy formation; it will examine the composition and chemistry of comets and planetary atmospheres in the Solar System; and it will be able to study the star-dust ejected by dying stars into interstellar space which form the raw material for planets like the Earth.

UK participation in Herschel includes leadership of an international consortium that designed and built the SPIRE instrument. The UK SPIRE team is also responsible for the development of software for instrument control and processing of the scientific data, and will lead the in-flight testing and operation of SPIRE.

Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff University, who is the SPIRE Principal Investigator, said “SPIRE contains an extremely sophisticated camera which will allow us to take detailed images space simultaneously in three submillimetre “colours”, and it also has an imaging spectrometer to measure the spectral features of atoms and molecules. It will offer astronomers a very powerful tool for many astrophysical studies from our own solar system to the most distant galaxies. The results could reveal how stars like the Sun are forming in our own galaxy today, how the galaxies grew and evolved over cosmic time, and how planetary systems can develop from the dust and gas around young stars.”

Planck
By studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) – the relic radiation from the Big Bang - the Planck satellite will allow us to travel back in time, nearly 14 thousand million years, towards the beginning of space and time as we know it. Its mission is to understand the origin and evolution of our Universe and look for the seeds of modern day structures, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters, in the subtle variations in the CMB.
The information gathered could also tell us more about the nature of the mysterious dark matter and dark energy, which constitutes most of the Universe, and help us understand more about the future of our Universe and whether it will continue its expansion forever, or collapse into a Big Crunch.

UK groups are involved in building the two focal plane instruments for Planck and UK astronomers are also posed to work on the scientific observations that Planck will make.
Professor George Efstathiou, HFI Survey Scientist and Planck Science team member, said, “We’re all very excited about the upcoming launch. Not only have UK scientists been involved in the production of the Planck instruments but they will also be heavily involved in analysing the data gathered from the mission. These results will allow us to test our theories of the Big Bang and could completely change our understanding of the origin and development of our Universe and even predict its future.”

Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Drayson said, "These space missions are outstanding feats of engineering. Herschel is the largest telescope we have ever put into space and the instruments on Planck will operate at just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero. This is really cool science happening at mind blowingly low temperatures, helping to answer some of the basic questions about the history of the universe."

Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, added, “Launches are always an incredibly tense and exciting time. This joint launch of Herschel and Planck is especially tense for us because of all the hard work and expertise UK scientists have contributed to these missions. The UK continues to be at the cutting edge of science and technology and momentous space missions like this, with a large degree of UK involvement, are evidence of the talent and expertise we have here in the UK.”


Notes for editors

Images
Images of Herschel and Planck are available from the STFC website http://www.scitech.ac.uk/herschelimages 
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/planckimages 

STFC has invested £13M in Herschel and £17.4M in Planck.

Contacts

Julia Short
Press Officer
STFC
Tel: +44 (0)1793 442 012
Mobile: +44 (0)7770 276 721
Email: Julia.short@stfc.ac.uk 

Julia Maddock
Media Manager
STFC
Tel +44 (0)1793 442 094
Mobile +44 (0)7901 514 975
Email: julia.maddock@stfc.ac.uk 

Science contacts
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/Resources/PDF/HPcontacts.pdf 


Launch information
Herschel and Planck are being launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 14th May 2009.

Herschel Mission timeline:
• About 0.5 hours after launch, Herschel separates from the upper stage, a couple of minutes before Planck, and starts the cruise to its final orbit around L2 (the second Lagrangian point).
• Commissioning Phase: In the first few days, basic spacecraft checks will be done. About one week after launch, the Herschel scientific instruments can be switched on for the first time and detailed commissioning of the instruments begins. During this time the satellite will be en route to its operational orbit, about 1.5 million km from the Earth.
• Performance Verification Phase: This begins after about 60 days, and involves tests to ensure that the instrument operational modes and scientific data processing software are thoroughly checked and optimised.
• Science Demonstration Phase: About 150 days into the mission, spacecraft and instrument testing will be complete and comprehensive trial scientific observations will begin, involving execution of a selection of different kinds of observations and processing the data to produce scientific results.
• Routine Operations Phase: About six months after launch, routine operations will begin, and will last for at least three years. The observational programmes for the first 18 months have already been selected.


Planck mission timeline:
• About 0.5 hours after launch Planck separates from the upper stage, a couple of minutes after Herschel, and starts the cruise to its final orbit around L2 (the second Lagrangian point).
• In about 2 months, Planck enters its operational orbit, a Lissajous orbit on average 400 000 km from L2.
• One month later, Planck starts its nominal scientific observations.


Herschel

The UK's main involvement is as the PI and main contributor to the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE), which is one of the three instruments in the Herschel payload. SPIRE comprises a three band imaging photometer and an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer and has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes including a number from the UK (Cardiff University, Imperial College London, the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, and STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK Astronomy Technology Centre and University of Sussex). The UK is also leading the development of software for controlling the instrument from the ground and processing the data to produce scientific results. The SPIRE Operations Centre, responsible for delivering all instrument software to ESA, and for day-to-day instrument monitoring, operation, and calibration, is located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory with contributions from the Imperial College and Cardiff groups.

The UK SPIRE institutes, together with astronomers in may other UK universities, are also strongly involved in the Herschel scientific programmes which have already been selected for the first 18 months of Herschel observations, and cover a wide range of science topics from our own solar system to the most distant galaxies.

More information can be found in the Herschel briefing document.
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/Resources/PDF/UKContHerschel.pdf 

Planck
A number of UK institutes and companies form part of the consortium building the two focal plane instruments, HFI (High Frequency Instrument) and LFI (Low Frequency Instrument). The Jodrell Bank Observatory at The University of Manchester has produced critical elements of the LFI receiver modules. Cardiff University, STFC RAL and SEA Ltd have been involved with hardware development for HFI, while various UK research groups including Imperial College London and University of Cambridge form the London Planck Analysis Centre and Cambridge Planck Analysis Centre. These groups are involved with data analysis and simulation for the HFI data analysis and simulation software.

More information can be found in the Planck briefing document.
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/Resources/PDF/Planck.pdf 

Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council ensures the UK retains its leading place on the world stage by delivering world-class science; accessing and hosting international facilities; developing innovative technologies; and increasing the socio-economic impact of its research through effective knowledge exchange.

The Council has a broad science portfolio including Astronomy, Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Space Science, Synchrotron Radiation, Neutron Sources and High Power Lasers. In addition the Council manages and operates three internationally renowned laboratories:
• The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire
• The Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire
• The UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh

The Council gives researchers access to world-class facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the Institute Laue Langevin (ILL), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It also funds UK telescopes overseas on La Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, which includes the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

The Council distributes public money from the Government to support scientific research.

The Council is a partner in the UK space programme, coordinated by the British National Space Centre.