Fine Structure

Herschel has started passing down the first images viewed through its impressive 3.5m infrared telescope and they're quite a spectacle to look at, especially compared to our previous best infrared resolution. If you recall, Herschel was launched along with Planck in mid-May of this year. Herschel's mission is to study the the formation of galaxies by looking at some of the farthest objects in the known universe, while Planck is focused on the cosmic microwave background and helping us understand the formation of the universe itself.