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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 08:30 PM Apr 2013

Herschel space telescope finishes mission

Source: BBC

29 April 2013 Last updated at 16:06 GMT

Herschel space telescope finishes mission

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

Europe's flagship space telescope has stopped working.

The billion-euro Herschel observatory has run out of the liquid helium needed to keep its instruments and detectors at their ultra-low functioning temperature.

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Herschel, which was sensitive to far-infrared and sub-millimetre light, was launched in 2009 to study the birth of stars and the evolution of galaxies.

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Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will run some final tests on the spacecraft in the coming weeks before putting it in a slow drift around the Sun.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21934520

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Herschel space telescope finishes mission (Original Post) Eugene Apr 2013 OP
The replacement will have a cooling-cycle with mechanical pumps. DetlefK Apr 2013 #1

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
1. The replacement will have a cooling-cycle with mechanical pumps.
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 09:32 AM
Apr 2013

Although there might be a way to do this without pumps. The problem: The technology isn't ready for application yet.

Cooling semi-conductors by laser-induced anti-stokes-emission from quantum-dots:
http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/9834/1/Physica%20Status%20Solidi%20%28a%29%202009%20with%20cover.pdf
light goes in, light+heat goes out

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