Herschel's telescope petals seen from behind

A photograph of a Herschel telescope sintered petal back side, taken at EADS on 3 May 2001. This is a scaled-down version, corresponding to 1/12 of the primary mirror surface.

It is the world's largest Silicon Carbide piece ever produced (size 70 x 160 cm) and was manufactured by Astrium SAS and Boostec (France).