2009: Herschel and Planck (ESA)

Herschel, the largest telescope ever launched, will study objects within and outside our Galaxy. It will be able to peer through clouds of gas and dust and observe stars as they form.
Unlike Herschel, Planck will rotate continuously about its axis, scanning the whole sky to compile the most detailed and complete map ever of the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB. This CMB radiation is the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang, which occurred about 14 thousand million years ago.

Herschel and Planck will be launched together atop an Ariane 5 rocket in spring 2009.

Credit: European Space Agency

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• iaf
• 2009
• space
• esa
• herschel
• planck

[Erverino]

@EtaCarinae22 Uh no. These agencies exist for research and don't make much profit other than from launch services and occasional space tourism. They almost completely rely on public funding. If you made them private then they would have no reason to continue 90% of the research and they would mostly focus on tourism. Then nothing would happen.

Also, care to explain how freeing it from the government would get things done quicker and better?

[tlesinsk]

Man, it's exactly that kind of ideology which got us in this situation in the first place...

[ananiasacts]

Maybe now that everyone is broke something like that can happen.

[EtaCarinae22]

It would be quite nice if We could Get the JAXA, ESA, and NASA to work together, free from government. Open them up to private donations and Stock trading. Maybe we could get things done quicker and better.