Herschel Space Observatory

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This article is about the future ESA space telescope. For the telescope on the Canary Islands, see William Herschel Telescope

**Herschel Space Observatory**
Physical Characteristics

Organization	ESA
Wavelength regime	infrared
Orbit height	1.5×10⁶km from Earth (L2 Lagrangian point)
Orbit period	1 year
Launch date	February 2008 (delayed from July 2007)
Deorbit date	(2010 - 2011)
Mass	3,300kg
Other names	Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope (FIRST)
Webpage	http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120390_index_0_m.html
Telescope Style	Cassegrain reflector
Primary Reflector Diameter	3500 mm, f/0.5
Collecting Area	9.6m²
Focal Length	27000 mm
Instruments
HIFI	Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared
PACS	Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer
SPIRE	Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver

The Herschel Space Observatory is a mission of the European Space Agency. It is to be launched in 2008 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket together with Planck and will enter a Lissajous 700 000 km diameter orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun system, 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth.

The mission was formerly titled the Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope (or FIRST). It will be the first space observatory to cover the full far infrared and submillimetre waveband, and its telescope will have the largest mirror ever deployed in space (three and a half metres wide). It will specialise in collecting light from distant and poorly known objects, such as newborn galaxies thousands of millions of light-years away. The light will be focused onto three instruments with detectors kept at temperatures below 2 K.

Mission objectives:

To study the formation of galaxies in the early universe and their subsequent evolution.
To investigate the creation of stars and their interaction with the interstellar medium
To observe the chemical composition of the atmospheres and surfaces of comets, planets and satellites
To examine the molecular chemistry of the universe