NASA Herschel Science Center's Portal to the Cool Universe
Press Release • nhsc2013-017 • Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
A massive and rare merging of two galaxies has been spotted in images taken by the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-015 • Monday, April 29th, 2013
Herschel has produced an intricate view of the remains of a star that died in a stellar explosion a millennium ago. It has provided further proof that the interstellar dust which lies throughout our Galaxy is created when massive stars reach the end of their lives. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-009 • Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
The 15 newly observed protostars turned up by surprise in a survey of the biggest site of star formation near our solar system, located in the constellation Orion. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-008 • Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe and surpassing the expectations of the international team of scientists involved. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-006 • Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
The possible effects of supermassive black holes on star formation in their host galaxies pose a tricky puzzle. Galaxy surveys from Herschel are being used to try to understand this complex interaction. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-005 • Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may, in fact, be creating new worlds. The disk of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae may be massive enough to make even more planets than we have in our own solar system. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2013-001 • Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a large asteroid belt around the star Vega, the second brightest star in northern night skies. The scientists used data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, in which NASA plays an important role. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2012-010 • Monday, July 9th, 2012
A beautiful blue butterfly flutters towards a nest of warm dust and gas, above an intricate network of cool filaments in this image of the Vela C region by ESA’s Herschel space observatory. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2012-009 • Thursday, May 17th, 2012
The Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2012-007 • Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
The Herschel Space Observatory has shown galaxies with the most powerful, active black holes at their cores produce fewer stars than galaxies with less active black holes. The results are the first to demonstrate black holes suppressed galactic star formation when the universe was less than half its current age. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2012-001 • Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
The cold dust that builds blazing stars is revealed in new images that combine observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. The new images map the dust in the galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way galaxy. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-018 • Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Using data from the Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have detected for the first time cold water vapor enveloping a dusty disk around a young star. The findings suggest that this disk, which is poised to develop into a solar system, contains great quantities of water, suggesting that water-covered planets like Earth may be common in the universe. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-017 • Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Astronomers have found a new cosmic source for the same kind of water that appeared on Earth billions of years ago and created the oceans. The findings may help explain how Earth's surface ended up covered in water. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-014 • Monday, August 1st, 2011
The Herschel Space Observatory's large telescope and state-of-the-art infrared detectors have provided the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space. The molecules were discovered in the Orion star-forming complex. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-013 • Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
New observations from the Herschel Space Observatory show a bizarre, twisted ring of dense gas at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few portions of the ring, which stretches across more than 600 light-years, were known before. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-012 • Thursday, July 7th, 2011
New observations from the infrared Herschel Space Observatory reveal that an exploding star expelled the equivalent of between 160,000 and 230,000 Earth masses of fresh dust. This enormous quantity suggests that exploding stars, called supernovae, are the answer to the long-standing puzzle of what supplied our early universe with dust. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-006 • Monday, May 9th, 2011
Herschel Space Observatory has detected raging winds of molecular gas streaming away from galaxies. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-004 • Thursday, April 14th, 2011
The Herschel Space Observatory has found evidence that tangled filaments in space may be shaped by sonic booms. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-003 • Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed how much dark matter it takes to form a new galaxy bursting with stars. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2011-001 • Wednesday, January 5th, 2011
This mosaic of the Andromeda spiral galaxy highlights explosive stars in its interior, and cooler, dusty stars forming in its many rings. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2010-012 • Thursday, November 4th, 2010
It turns out the Herschel Space Observatory has a trick up its sleeve. The telescope, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions, has proven to be excellent at finding magnified, faraway galaxies. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2010-006 • Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
The Herschel Space Observatory has made an unexpected discovery: a gaping hole in the clouds surrounding a batch of young stars. The hole has provided astronomers with a surprising glimpse into the end of the star-forming process. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2010-005 • Thursday, May 6th, 2010
The first scientific results from ESA's Herschel infrared space observatory are revealing previously hidden details of star formation. New images show thousands of distant galaxies furiously building stars and beautiful star-forming clouds draped across the Milky Way. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2010-004 • Monday, April 12th, 2010
The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a cosmic garden of budding stars, each expected to grow to 10 times the mass of our sun. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-022 • Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching through the image. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-021 • Friday, November 27th, 2009
Herschel spectroscopy takes center stage today as new spectra, obtained with the SPIRE, PACS and HIFI instruments during the performance verification phase, are released by ESA and the instrument teams. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-013 • Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
After a perfect injection by the Ariane 5 launcher on 14 May, the critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) for Herschel and Planck has started to wind down, while commissioning of the scientific instruments and subsystems on both spacecraft has begun. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-012 • Thursday, May 14th, 2009
The Herschel and Planck spacecraft successfully blasted into space at 6:12 a.m. Pacific Time (9:12 a.m. Eastern Time) on May 14 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-008 • Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Two missions to study the cosmos, Herschel and Planck, are scheduled to blast into space May 14 aboard the same Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-007 • Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Now that additional checks on the Ariane 5 ECA launcher have been completed, Arianespace and ESA have set the launch date of Herschel and Planck for Thursday 14 May. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-006 • Monday, April 20th, 2009
Due to an anomaly discovered during tests on a subassembly identical to the one on the Ariane 5 launcher, Arianespace has decided to carry out additional checks which will take a few days. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-005 • Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
With the additional checks related to the flight worthiness of the Herschel telescope now completed, ESA and Arianespace have set the launch date of Herschel and Planck for 6 May 2009. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2009-002 • Monday, February 9th, 2009
ESA's Herschel and Planck missions have successfully completed their test campaigns in Europe and will be soon transported to Europe's spaceport at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guyana. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2001-003 • Monday, October 15th, 2001
Giant telescopes with primary mirrors of 8 metres in diameter are now common on the ground, but it will take a while before they can jump into space. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2000-004 • Friday, December 22nd, 2000
In science, new answers often trigger new questions. And in astronomy, new questions often mean new instruments. More ...
Press Release • nhsc2000-002 • Thursday, December 14th, 2000
ESA's 'Herschel Space Observatory' will find out the nature of the first galaxies More ...