New astronomy with the Odin satellite Original Research Article

The key Odin instrumental features are summarised, and the advantages vs Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) are identified. We highlight results from Odin’s first year of sub-millimetre and millimetre wave observations of H2O, H218O, NH3, and O2, focussing on a number of new results where Odin’s high angular resolution, high frequency resolution, large spectrometer band widths, high sensitivity, or/and frequency tuning capability are crucial. We also show, by means of a quantitative comparison of Orion KL H2O results, that the Odin and SWAS observational data sets are very consistently calibrated.