14-06-09 Herschel telescope 'opens eyes'

Europe's new billion-euro Herschel space observatory,launched in May,has achieved a critical milestone.The telescope has opened the hatch that has been protecting its sensitive instruments from contamination.The procedure allowed light collected by Herschel's giant 3.5m mirror to flood its supercold instrument chamber,or cryostat,for the first time.The observatory's quest is to study how stars and galaxies form,and how they evolve through cosmic time.The command sent on Sunday to fire two pyrotechnic bolts holding down the hatch was arguably the key moment in the European Space Agency (Esa) mission since the 14 May launch from Earth."We need the lid open or we can't see the sky,so it's a really important event," said Professor Matt Griffin,the principal investigator on SPIRE,one of three instruments inside the cryostat.News of the hatch opening came on the eve of the Paris air show,a big event in the space calendar when Esa and the space industry come together to celebrate their achievements.A Herschel display is a prominent feature in the Esa pavilion which the public can visit from Friday 19 June,after the trade days here at Le Bourget that run from Monday to Thursday