Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2012-04-05
Advances in Space Research, Volume 49, Issue 10, 15 May 2012, Pages 1395-1407
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
Invited review paper to appear in Advances of Space Research; 32 pages, 9 figures. See http://www.sron.rug.nl/~vdtak/adspres.p
Scientific paper
10.1016/j.asr.2012.02.027
This paper contains a summary of the results from the first years of observations with the HIFI instrument onboard ESA's Herschel space observatory. The paper starts by outlining the goals and possibilities of far-infrared and submillimeter astronomy, the limitations of the Earth's atmosphere, and the scientific scope of the Herschel-HIFI mission. The presentation of science results from the mission follows the life cycle of gas in galaxies as grouped into five themes: Structure of the interstellar medium, First steps in interstellar chemistry, Formation of stars and planets, Solar system results and Evolved stellar envelopes. The HIFI observations paint a picture where the interstellar medium in galaxies has a mixed, rather than a layered structure; the same conclusion may hold for protoplanetary disks. In addition, the HIFI data show that exchange of matter between comets and asteroids with planets and moons plays a large role. The paper concludes with an outlook to future instrumentation in the far-infrared and submillimeter wavelength ranges.
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