May 13, 2019 - Telescope Double Header

Telescope Double Header  Ten years ago this week, an Ariane 5 rocket rose from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana carrying two cutting-edge space telescopes for the European Space Agency. Herschel, named after English astronomer siblings Sir William and Caroline Herschel, ended operations in 2013 but was the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space. Planck, named after German physicist Max Planck, was the first European space observatory whose main goal was the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background—the relic radiation from the Big Bang. Two instruments on Herschel worked in concert to create this infrared image of the W5 complex of cavernous molecular clouds and star-forming regions, located 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Image credit: ESA/Herschel/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Weekly Calendar

May 13 - 19, 2019

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 13

Moon at perigee

1964: Apollo A-001 launched (Little Joe II test flight)

Tuesday 14

1973: Skylab launched
2009: Herschel and Planck space observatories launched
2010: STS-132 Atlantis launched

Wednesday 15

1857: Williamina Fleming born
1958: Sputnik 3 launched
1963: Faith 7 launched, last Mercury program flight
1997: STS-84 Atlantis launched, sixth Mir docking mission
2012: Soyuz TMA-04M launched carrying ISS Expedition 31/32 crew

Thursday 16

2011: STS-134 Endeavour launched

Friday 17

1836: Norman Lockyer born
1974: SMS-1 launched, first geostationary weather satellite

Saturday 18

Venus 1.2° south of Uranus
Full Moon 5:11 PM ET

1969: Apollo 10 launched
1984: Viking 1 lander given to National Air & Space Museum
1996: First test flight of DC-XA rocket
2009: 23rd and final spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope

Sunday 19

Ceres 1.2° north of Moon

1965: Apollo A-003 launched
1996: STS-77 Endeavour launched
2000: STS-101 Atlantis launched