The Herschel Space Observatory was a European Space Agency telescope that observed the universe in far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. It was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket together with the Planck spacecraft, and it operated near the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Herschel had the largest single mirror ever flown in space at the time, and its instruments were cooled with liquid helium, which ran out in 2013, ending the mission. It was used to study the formation of stars and galaxies, the chemistry of interstellar clouds and the presence of water in space. It was named after William Herschel, who discovered infrared radiation.
Before and after
- 7 March 2009Launch of Kepler Space Telescope
- 6 April 20092009 L'Aquila earthquake
- 21 April 2009Discovery of Gliese 581 e
- 30 April 20092009 attack on the Dutch royal family
- 14 May 2009Launch of Herschel Space Observatory
- 14 May 2009Launch of Planck
- from 19 May 2009 to 20 March 2015Premiere of Glee
- 1 June 2009Air France Flight 447
- 3 June 2009Release of Microsoft Bing
More in Universe & space
- 4 October 1957Launch of Sputnik 1
- 20 August 1977Launch of Voyager 2
- 28 July 1989Discovery of Galatea
- 15 May 2005Discovery of Hydra
- 10 September 2005Discovery of Dysnomia
- 19 January 2006Launch of New Horizons
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.