Word: space
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...European Space Agency's (ESA) twin telescopes, named Herschel and Planck, are being carried on an Ariane 5 launcher to take up a vantage point 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth. From there, they will gaze across the farthest corners of the cosmos to try to learn about the physics and chemistry behind the Big Bang. (See pictures of the Hubble telescope's achievements...
...telescopes are expected to peer deeper into space and time than any telescope has done before. Their launch comes three days after NASA's space shuttle launch to repair the Hubble telescope, which, since its launch in 1990, has been regarded as the most important instrument in the study of the cosmos. However, the ESA says that Herschel and Planck will explore the science of space in a way that Hubble never could...
...With its 11.5-ft.-wide (3.5 m) mirror, Herschel will be the biggest telescope in space. Named after the great 18th century British astronomer William Herschel, it will search a vast array of galaxies collecting radiation that emits from protostars, the dust clouds that contract to form stars and galaxies. Unlike Hubble, which is tuned to visible light, Herschel will go after much longer wavelength radiation in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter range. By allowing astronomers to study objects in space not visible in other wavelengths, it should record the formation of protostars for the first time...
...point of the telescopes, which cost a combined $2.5 billion, might seem abstract to a public that associates space missions with moon walks and Star Trek. But that misses the bigger picture, according to Colin Pillinger, who led the 2003 Beagle 2 project to land a spacecraft on the surface of Mars. "People always say these big questions don't have anything to do with their day-to-day life," he says. "But we get all sorts of spin-offs from asking about the universe. The technologies generated include carbon fibers, new electronic systems and sophisticated radio technologies. And perhaps...
...Because adding water to the oceans is not like adding it to a lake or a pond or even a bathtub, where the level rises everywhere uniformly. A lake or a pond or a bathtub is not a 6.6 sextillion-ton sphere of rock and dirt spinning through space. The Earth is, and that makes all the difference...