DISCOVERING THE COLD UNIVERSE

Join us at this three-day public astronomy event celebrating the successful launch of the Herschel Space Observatory and the first science results.

Organised in collaboration with the Department of Astrophysics at Imperial College, the Herschel’s Instrument Control Center, NASA, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Friends of Astronomy Group (OFA) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory is the largest and most expensive space telescope ever built. Its 3.5m diameter mirror will collect radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In order to achieve this, it is equipped with three state-of-the-art infrared cameras, SPIRE, PACS and HIFI, which represent the end result of more than 20 years research in over 20 top science institutes worldwide.

Herschel was successfully launched on 14 May 2009 aboard an Ariane-5 missile from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, for its two-month trip to the L2 point, 1.5 million kilometers from earth.

Herschel’s first images became available on 19 June 2009 revealing a completely new picture of galaxies observed with the previous generation infrared telescopes.

The team that designed, built, launched and who will use Herschel will hold their first large-scale public event in Thessaloniki.

Speakers include: