The Herschel
mission involves three instruments utilizing a very
large (3.5m wide) telescope. This telescope will feature
the largest one-piece mirror in space, and is considerably
larger than any of its predecessors, including the Hubble
space telescope.
Researchers from many countries and institutions
in Europe and North America are working together to build
the three very complex and sensitive instruments on Herschel:
HIFI, PACS, and SPIRE
> The
Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared, HIFI,
is a high-resolution spectrometer that looks at a single
point in the sky. A spectrometer is an instrument that splits
light into the light spectrum, its individual components.
HIFI is built in the Netherlands, and Canada contributes
hardware components to this very complex instrument.
>The
Photometric Array Camera and Spectrometer, PACS,
is an infrared spectrometer and camera. It can receive infrared
light not just from one point, but a small patch in the
sky ranging from 60 to 200µm. It is assembled and
tested in Germany.
> The
Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, SPIRE,
is similar to PACS in that it is an infrared camera plus
spectrometer that looks simultaneously at a whole region
in the sky. However, it takes care of the longer wavelength
range from 200 to 670µm. It is assembled and tested
in the UK. The University of Lethbridge leads the Canadian
contribution to SPIRE, which is funded by the Canadian Space
Agency.
