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:
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Professor Matt Griffin, University of Cardiff, UK, Director of SPIRE |
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Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson, Imperial College London, UK, Former President of the Royal Astronomical Society |
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Professor Sebastian Oliver, University of Sussex, UK, Director of HerMES, the largest research programme that will be carried out with Herschel |
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Professor Harry Varvoglis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki |
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Dr William Latter, NASA, USA, Deputy Director of NASA’s Herschel Science Center |
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Dr Bruce Swinyard, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, SPIRE Scientist |
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Dr Emmanouil Plionis, National Observatory of Athens |
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Dr Pierre Chanial, CEA Saclay, France, PACS Scientist |
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Dr Markos Trichas, Imperial College London, UK, SPIRE Scientist |
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Mr Dionysios Simopoulos, Director of the Eugenides Planetarium |
