Europe launches effort to study beginnings of the universe
By Dave Parrack
And you thought space exploration was dead. Just days after NASA launched the space shuttle Atlantis on a repair mission to the Hubble space telescope, the European Space Agency launched two spacecraft which will hopefully help us to understand the beginnings of the universe.
Europe, apart of course from the former Soviet Union, isn’t exactly known for being leaders when it comes to space travel and space exploration. However, while NASA is busy repairing the Hubble space telescope to give it a few extra years of life, the ESA has launched a separate mission which will compliment the work of Hubble and increase scientists’ knowledge of the early days of our universe, immediately after the Big Bang.
The launch of the rocket carrying the two spacecraft took place on Thursday (May 14) from Kourou in French Guiana. The rocket will carry the Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft to an orbit around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
According to BBC News, the Herschel will study the debris left over after planets are formed, as well as part of the electromagnetic spectrum currently fairly uncharted. This is made possible thanks to a mirror with a diameter of 3.5 meters (11.5 feet), the biggest ever to be launched into space. Hubble’s mirror only has a diameter of 2.4 meters (7.9 feet).
Planck, meanwhile, has been designed to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the fossil radiation left over from the Big Bang. The satellite will also study dark matter and dark energy, both of which are believed to be driving forces of the expansion of the universe.
The construction of the two spacecraft cost the ESA around $952 million and the whole project has been planned for the last 15 years. After the several weeks it will take for Herschel and Planck to reach orbit, they will go online and start transmitting data back to Earth. The mission is expected to last around three years.
This is a great endeavor to undertake, but I can’t help feeling it’ll all be in vain if Cern manage to recreate the Big Bang using the Large Hadron Collider. Surely recreating the event will teach us all we need to know about the beginning of the universe? And possibly implode Earth killing us all in the process. I jest, of course.
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Stumble It!
May 16th, 2009
I’m sorry Dave, but your naivety in space exploration is sadly obvious.
The European Space Agency has been a major player in space exploration and commercialisation for the last 30 years or more.
Much of the serious terrestially-based astronomy done around the world is done by Europeans. In fact, one of the largest and most contemporary telescope systems is ESO’s Very Large Telescope Array at Cerro Paranal in the Chilean desert.
A huge number of commercial satellites have been launched via the Ariane vehicles out of the ESA’s facility in Guyana. I’m willing to bet that almost all of the 21st century electronic media and connectivity you currently enjoy in Britain is totally reliant on space based systems launched and maintained by Europeans.
The ESA has sent exploratory missions to various destinations, including comets, asteroids and planets. One of the most obvious targets in recent years has been Mars.
You might also be surprised to learn that NASA is NOT the sole player in the high-profile Cassini mission to Saturn – it is a joint project with the ESA, which NASA has always been most careful to state in every new photo and media release.
NASA’s meteoric rise in the late 1950’s and 60’s was driven by the cold war. Space was then, and still is now, regarded by certain elements of the American military/industrial complex as a battle ground to be conquered and dominated by the US. Hence why NASA still runs classified missions from time to time.
The American media protect and perpetuate this paradigm by continually portraying NASA as the leader in the field, with minimal mention of other non-American contributors.
On the other hand, the ESA is not derived from one nation, but from many, with a completely different, and distinctly non-military motivational focus.
You could liken Europe and space to Linux and the internet – largely unknown by the public, but responsible for much of the background heavy lifting.
May 18th, 2009
Seriously Dave Parrack has been shown to be so ignorant so much on this website, why do they keep letting him right this stuff, especially the “in vain ” stuff, the 2 projects couldnt be further apart, they just happen to both use the word “Big Bang”,