Artist’s impression of SPIRE

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) comprises a three-band imaging photometer and an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer. The instrument will be used to undertake large area deep sky photometric imaging surveys and allow follow-up spectroscopic observations of selected sources.

These observations will help tackle two of the most fundamental questions in astronomy: how and when did galaxies form and how do stars form?

The three-band imaging photometer is centred at 250, 350 and 500 micrometres, and an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) covering 200-670 micrometres. The detectors are arrays of feedhorn-coupled NTD spider-web bolometers cooled to 0.3 K. SPIRE was developed by a consortium led by Cardiff University (UK).