The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The teams involved in ESA's Herschel space observatory reflect on the mission and its legacy.
Herschel launched in May 2009 and studied the cool Universe in infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths for nearly four years. Highlights included surveying the glow of cold cosmic dust embedded in interstellar clouds of gas to unlock the secrets of star formation, and peering back in time to when the Universe was less than one billion years old to study galaxy evolution. The observatory also traced out the presence of water in star-forming clouds, detected it for the first time in the seeds of future stars and planets, and identified the delivery of water from interplanetary debris to planets in our Solar System.
Although the Herschel mission has now reached retirement, its legacy continues and it will remain a primary reference for astronomers for many years to come.
For more videos and articles celebrating the achievements and legacy of Herschel visit http://sci.esa.int/herschel-week