The birth of galaxies and stars

It will detect radiation at very long wavelengths, revealing distant galaxies - up to 10 billion light years away - which are invisible to other telescopes. This is equivalent to looking up to 10 billion years into the past, and hence SPIRE will be able to view distant galaxies in their early stages of formation. SPIRE will also be able to look at closer clouds of dust and gas in our own galaxy, and view the formation of stars in "stellar nurseries".

The Cardiff team, led by Dr Peter Hargrave, has worked with engineering experts in the University's Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC) to produce highly specialised lenses and sophisticated Kevlar supports for SPIRE's sensors. These sensors have to be kept at -273° C (0.3 degrees above absolute zero — the lowest possible temperature) in order to detect this long-wavelength radiation.

The production of the lenses was itself a complex operation, involving a technique called "hot embossing," which ensures the material maintains its original characteristics even at -273 C.

In order to keep the detectors so cold, the detectors and cooling system have to be thermally isolated from all the other equipment. So the MEC's experts have manufactured components for a sophisticated Kevlar "cat's cradle" to suspend the detector housings.

"This is a very important and exciting project," said Dr Hargrave. "Cardiff is playing a central role — not just through the science, but in the technical challenges of engineering the sophisticated equipment to make it possible. It has been a great help to have the engineering experts right alongside us in Cardiff University."