Issue |
A&A
Volume 518, July-August 2010
Herschel: the first science highlights
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L2 | |
Number of page(s) | 12 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201014535 | |
Published online | 16 July 2010 |
Letter to the Editor
The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory*
1
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik,
Giessenbachstraße, 85748 Garching, Germany e-mail: alpog@mpe.mpg.de
2
Institute of Astronomy KU Leuven,
Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
3
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, IRFU,
Orme des Merisiers, Bât. 709, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France
4
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie,
Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
5
Centre Spatial de Liège, Parc Scientifique du Sart Tilman,
Avenue du Pré-Aily, 4031 Angleur-Liège, Belgium
6
Interuniversity Microelectronics Center,
Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
7
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario,
Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italy
8
Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, C/via Lactea s/n,
La Laguna, 38200 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
9
Institut für Astronomie der Universität Wien,
Türkenschanzstraße 17, 1180 Wien, Austria
10
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, LETI,
17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France
11
NASA Herschel Science Center,
Pasadena, USA
12
European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC),
Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Villanueva de la Cañada,
28692 Madrid, Spain
13
European Southern Observatory,
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
14
Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste,
via Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
15
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology,
Donau-City-Straße 1, 1220 Wien, Austria
16
Institute of Computer Vision and Graphics, Graz University of Technology,
Inffeldgasse 16/II, 8010 Graz, Austria
17
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, INAC/SBT,
17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France
18
LENS - European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy,
Via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto-Fiorentino (Firenze), Italy
19
Konkoly Observatory,
PO Box 67, 1525 Budapest, Hungary
20
Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri,
Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
Received:
29
March
2010
Accepted:
28
April
2010
The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) is one of the three science instruments on ESA's far infrared and submillimetre observatory. It employs two Ge:Ga photoconductor arrays (stressed and unstressed) with 16×25 pixels, each, and two filled silicon bolometer arrays with 16×32 and 32×64 pixels, respectively, to perform integral-field spectroscopy and imaging photometry in the 60–210 μm wavelength regime. In photometry mode, it simultaneously images two bands, 60–85 μm or 85–125 μm and 125–210 μm, over a field of view of ~1.75'× 3.5', with close to Nyquist beam sampling in each band. In spectroscopy mode, it images a field of 47” × 47”, resolved into 5×5 pixels, with an instantaneous spectral coverage of ~1500 km s-1 and a spectral resolution of ~175 km s-1. We summarise the design of the instrument, describe observing modes, calibration, and data analysis methods, and present our current assessment of the in-orbit performance of the instrument based on the performance verification tests. PACS is fully operational, and the achieved performance is close to or better than the pre-launch predictions.
Key words: space vehicles: instruments / instrumentation: photometers / instrumentation: spectrographs
© ESO, 2010
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.