On May 14th, ESA's Herschel and Planck satellites will be launched together into space where they will collect the most detailed information yet about the birth and evolution of our Universe and its stars and galaxies.

The UK is playing major roles in both missions, with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Herschel
Carrying the largest telescope to be flown in space, the Herschel Space Observatory will view the Universe at far infrared wavelengths.

It will peer through obscuring clouds of dust to look at the early stages of star birth and galaxy formation; it will examine the composition and chemistry of comets and planetary atmospheres in the Solar System; and it will be able to study the star-dust ejected by dying stars into interstellar space which form the raw material for planets like the Earth.

UK participation in Herschel includes leadership of an international consortium that designed and built the SPIRE instrument.

The UK SPIRE team is also responsible for the development of software for instrument control and processing of the scientific data, and will lead the in-flight testing and operation of SPIRE.

Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff University, who is the SPIRE Principal Investigator, said "SPIRE contains an extremely sophisticated camera which will allow us to take detailed images space simultaneously in three submillimeter 'colors', and it also has an imaging spectrometer to measure the spectral features of atoms and molecules.

It will offer astronomers a very powerful tool for many astrophysical studies from our own solar system to the most distant galaxies. The results could reveal how stars like the Sun are forming in our own galaxy today, how the galaxies grew and evolved over cosmic time, and how planetary systems can develop from the dust and gas around young stars."

Planck
By studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - the relic radiation from the Big Bang - the Planck satellite will allow us to travel back in time, nearly 14 thousand million years, towards the beginning of space and time as we know it.

Its mission is to understand the origin and evolution of our Universe and look for the seeds of modern day structures, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters, in the subtle variations in the CMB.

The information gathered could also tell us more about the nature of the mysterious dark matter and dark energy, which constitutes most of the Universe, and help us understand more about the future of our Universe and whether it will continue its expansion forever, or collapse into a Big Crunch.

UK groups are involved in building the two focal plane instruments for Planck and UK astronomers are also posed to work on the scientific observations that Planck will make.

Professor George Efstathiou, HFI Survey Scientist and Planck Science team member, said, "We're all very excited about the upcoming launch. Not only have UK scientists been involved in the production of the Planck instruments but they will also be heavily involved in analyzing the data gathered from the mission.

These results will allow us to test our theories of the Big Bang and could completely change our understanding of the origin and development of our Universe and even predict its future."

Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Drayson said, "These space missions are outstanding feats of engineering. Herschel is the largest telescope we have ever put into space, and the instruments on Planck will operate at just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero. This is really cool science happening at mind-blowingly low temperatures, helping to answer some of the basic questions about the history of the universe."

Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, added, "Launches are always an incredibly tense and exciting time. This joint launch of Herschel and Planck is especially tense for us because of all the hard work and expertise UK scientists have contributed to these missions. The UK continues to be at the cutting edge of science and technology and momentous space missions like this, with a large degree of UK involvement, are evidence of the talent and expertise we have here in the UK."

STFC has invested Pounds 13M in Herschel and Pounds 17.4M in Planck.