Event List

Professor David Naylor will give an overview presentation on the new Herschel Space Observatory, which was launched on May 14, 2009 on board an Ariane 5 rocket. A fitting tribute to the International Year of Astronomy, which celebrates 400 years since Galileo first viewed the heavens with a much smaller and simpler telescope. With funding from the Canadian Space Agency, several Canadian institutions and entrepreneurs have contributed to Herschel by taking part in the development of two of the three science instruments: the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). Professor Naylor is the Principal Investigator for Canada's contribution to SPIRE, and he will share his first hand account of the launch, provide an update on the current status of the mission, and show some of the early results. Professor Naylor will also describe the challenges of how to get a space project from the drawing board out to beyond the Moon.