The Herschel Space Observatory was a Space Observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The observatory was carried into orbit in May 2009, reaching the 2nd Lagrangian point (L2) of the Earth-Sun System, 1,500,000 kilometres (930,000 mi) from Earth, about two months later.
Herschel is named after Sir William Herschel , the discoverer of the infrared spectrum and planet Utranus, and his sister and collaborator Caroline Herschel
The observatory was capable of seeing the coldest and dustiest objects in space; for example, cool cocoons where stars form and dusty galaxies just starting to bulk up with new stars
The telescope's lifespan was governed by the amount of coolant available for its instruments; when that coolant ran out, the instruments would stop functioning correctly. At the time of its launch, operations were estimated to last 3.5 years (to around the end of 2012)
It continued to operate until April 29,2013 15:20 UTC, when Herschel ran out of coolant.
It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest Infrared Telescope ever launched, carrying a single 3.5-metre (11.5 ft) mirror and instruments sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands (55–672 µm)
Herschel was the fourth cornerstone mission in the ESA science programme, along with Rosetta,Planck and Gaia
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