Preview from Herschel
I thought you might like to see this image from Herschel, which I got from the ESA website. The Spitzer/MIPS and the Herschel/PACS images of M51 at 160 µm are shown above. The advantage of the larger size of the Herschel telescope is clearly reflected in the much higher resolution of the image: Herschel reveals structures that cannot be discerned in the Spitzer image.
By golly, it seems to work!
In the Dark 
June 20, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Careless writing Peter…angular resolution and mirror size are not related the way you claim!
June 20, 2009 at 12:49 pm
You think larger mirrors have lower resolution then?
ps. In any case I cut and pasted that text from the ESA site linked to earlier in the message.
June 20, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Coooool! I think there’s something magical about seeing space objects snap into focus like this… it’s a shocking reminder that the far, dim corners of the universe are just as real and enormous as the world in which we live.
Do you know what features the far-infrared image is showing us? Are we seeing stars, like in the optical band, or is it warm dust and stuff like that?
June 20, 2009 at 7:50 pm
p.s. And what’s that big blob at the top?!
June 20, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Aaron,
You can find out a bit more about M51 by following the link to the ESA website, where images at different wavelengths can be found. The infrared emission, however, is dominated by dust.
“That big blob at the top” is a small companion galaxy, NGC 5195.
Peter
June 22, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Brilliant image, and that’s just the first…
Anton
June 22, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Actually it’s even more amazing than you think. The picture was taken before the commissioning phase had really even started. It’s quite stunning that it turned out so superbly. It bodes very well for Herschel’s science operations.