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Don Hassler became the new director of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), on February 1st, 2014 for a 5-year term, succeeding Yves Langevin, who remains director of the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de l’Université Paris-Sud (OSUPS). Don Hassler was previously science program director at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Since the 14th of August, the Planck satellite has departed from its observing orbit. This was the first of a series of steps followed by the switching off, on the 19th of October, of the science instruments on board: HFI (High Frequency Instrument) and LFI (Low Frequency Instrument). On Wednesday the 23rd of October, that is 1624 days after launch, communication with the Planck satellite ceased.
After 1,554 days in space, the Planck satellite has completed its observations on 14 August 14th, 2013. If the high frequency instrument HFI stopped operating on January 14th, 2012, the low frequency instrument LFI was able to work around an additional 600 days as its operating temperature is much higher than HFI. There remains to "park" the satellite in the solar system before saying goodbye.
