Biography

Stephen Eales is an astronomer who also writes about astronomy. After a PhD in radio astronomy in Cambridge and postdocs in Hawaii and at the Space Telescope Science

Institute, he is now a professor of astrophysics in Cardiff. In his day job, he carries out research into the origin and evolution of galaxies, using telescopes all over the world and in space. In his other life, he has written two books about astronomy for a general audience. His latest book, The Ghost in the Telescope, tells the story of the Herschel Space Observatory, the discoveries made with the observatory and the human stories behind the mission.

Synopsis

The births of stars and some galaxies occur inside clouds of gas and dust, which hides them from the view of optical telescopes, and the only way to observe them is to go to longer wavelengths – to the submillimetre waveband. In my talk I will describe this new type of astronomy, focussing on the Herschel Space Observatory, whose launch in 2009 marked the moment at which submillimetre astronomy came of age. I will describe some of the discoveries made by the mission and include some of the human stories behind the mission from my new book: The Ghost in the Telescope – the story of the Herschel Space Observatory.