Countdown has NUI over the moon

AT 2.12PM today Irish time, two satellites will lift off from French Guyana in South America on top of an Ariane 5 rocket with a mission to answer some of the most profound questions in science.

They include: How did stars and galaxies form? How do clumps of cold interstellar gas become hot stars? What is the real age of the universe and just how fast is it expanding?

The European Space Agency’s Herschel and Planck missions have cost nearly €2 billion and have been 15 years in the planning. Few space missions before have had such a level of Irish involvement.

Staff from the Advanced Experimental Physics Department at NUI Maynooth will be uncorking a bottle of specially-commissioned Planck wine in anticipation of a successful launch this afternoon.

NUI Maynooth has created a niche for itself in the development of optical instrument for looking through the far infrared.

Scientists there have been involved for more than a decade in the development of Herschel’s HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared), a high-resolution spectrometer which will look for the signatures of elements such as carbon and oxygen in star-forming regions along with the presence of water.

Herschel will be the biggest space telescope ever launched and will be able to see into the far infrared. Currently our views of many galaxies are obscured by clouds of gas which Herschel will be able to see through.

Scientists are hoping that Herschel will see further back in time than any instrument to date and give us clues as to how the first stars and galaxies formed at the start of the universe.

NUI Maynooth has also been involved in testing the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on Planck. It will look at the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), the remnants left over from the Big Bang.

Professor J Anthony Murphy, from NUI Maynooth, said both missions had the ability to alter our views of the universe.

“I’m an instrument builder rather than a theoretical physicist, but I find the whole thing mindblowing. The amount of data we will get will keep scientists busy for years.

“There will be a revolution in the areas in which they address,” he said.

Both satellites are bound for a place 1.5 million km from Earth called the L2 or the Lagrangian point, where the gravity from the Earth and sun cancel each other out allowing for a stable orbit.

They will always be on the night side of the Earth which will keep the instruments super-cooled at temperatures approaching absolute zero.