Herschel observations of the large asteroid Ceres led to a major discovery, namely the first detection of an exosphere made of water vapour around an asteroid. The first detection occurred on 11 October, 2012, and was confirmed from HIFI observations conducted on 24th October and 6 March 2013 (guaranteed time program MACH 11, PI L. O.Rourke, and follow up from a DDT, PI M. Kueppers).
Publication
Thermal properties of large main-belt asteroids observed by Herschel PACS | Ali-Lagoa V. et al. | Astronomy and Astrophysics | null | null | 2020A&A...638A..84A |
Herschel celestial calibration sources. Four large main-belt asteroids as prime flux calibrators for the far-IR/sub-mm range | Muller Thomas et al. | Experimental Astronomy Volume 37 Issue 2 pp.253-330 | 37 | 10.1007\\/s10686-013-9357-y | 2014ExA....37..253M | http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ExA....37..253M
Instrument
PACS_PacsPhoto_largeScan
Temporal Coverage
2013-04-23T17:41:19Z/2013-04-24T05:16:34Z
Version
SPG v14.2.0
Mission Description
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth cornerstone mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.
European Space Agency, bockelee-morvan et al., 2013, 'Origin of water outgassing from asteroid CERES', SPG v14.2.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-gbhf3zm
