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| The Herschel Space Observatory will have two Canadian instruments |
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The Herschel Space Observatory is the fourth
cornerstone in the European Space Agency's Horizon 2000 program. This mission was originally named FIRST (Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope) and was renamed in December 2000 in honour of the English astronomer William Herschel who discovered infrared radiation in 1800.
The Herschel Space Observatory will be a facility-class space telescope and is scheduled for launch in 2007. In many ways it will be the
submillimetre/infrared counterpart to the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Herschel promises to advance scientific understanding and make new discoveries equally as dramatic as those already achieved by the
HST.
The payload will consist of three instruments, two of which are imaging cameras for mapping the continuum in the far-infrared and submillimetre wavebands, with each also providing some limited low or moderate spectroscopic capabilities. The third instrument will make high-resolution spectroscopic observations in the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands. Canada is
participating in two instruments:
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