In the news this (last) month: and finally, first results from Herschel-ATLAS
The ATLAS image compared with the size of the Full Moon as seen from Earth CREDIT: Herschel
October saw the first public data release from the Herschel-ATLAS project, the largest project awarded open time on the infra red satellite. Covering an area of 16-square degrees on the sky (more than 60 times the area of the full moon), the field contains more than 6000 galaxies imaged in five infra red bands (or colours) between 100 and 500 microns. The data were obtained as part of Herschel's Science Demonstration Phase in late 2009 and the ATLAS team have been working hard to process the raw images and produce catalogues of the objects detected. With so many galaxies in the field, the new data should provide much useful information to astronomers studying the evolution of galaxies over the history of the universe.
This blog post is a news story from the Jodcast, aired in the November 2010 edition.
Posted by Megan on Friday 17th Dec 2010 (08:05 UTC) | 2 Comments | Permalink
Comments: In the news this (last) month: and finally, first results from Herschel-ATLAS
Given I work for Asantha Cooray I hear about Herschel all the time. :) However, I have not seen the Atlas image compared with the size of the full moon. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Joseph Smidt on Thursday 30th Dec 2010 (15:28 UTC)
Hi Joseph! It's pretty cool, isn't it? I love big surveys like this, there's just so much scope for discovering things we don't yet know are there to be discovered, especially when you put together all the surveys carried out in different parts of the spectrum! Trouble is, are there enough researchers with enough time to actual make all the discoveries?
Posted by Megan on Friday 07th Jan 2011 (08:11 UTC)