The Secret History of a Space Mission

The Herschel Space Observatory observed the sky from 2010-2013, making a series of revolutionary discoveries about the origin of stars, galaxies and, believe it or not, water. Immediately after the mission, Stephen interviewed many of the scientists involved in building and using the observatory. Stephen ended up writing a book about the mission based on the interviews and his own experience as the leader of one of the largest Herschel observing programmes: 'The Ghost in the Telescope'. In this talk, Stephen will describe some of the astronomical discoveries made with the observatory, but also try to describe what it is like to be caught up in a space mission - the human story behind the science.

Stephen Eales has worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the universities of Hawaii and Toronto and is currently a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff. He uses telescopes around the world and in…