ESA builds biggest space telescope

In less than two years, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch Herschel, the biggest ever space telescope. Built in Europe and named after the pioneering astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, it will be launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket.

The Herschel Space Telescope follows up the success of ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory, which was launched in 1995.

This time around, ESA will be able to look at regions of the infrared spectrum never explored before. Herschel has a mirror almost twice as big as that of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is made possible with new materials and by the fact that it will be dealing with long-wavelength radiation. As the universe is expanding, a bigger mirror will allow Herschel to pick up weak infrared signals from older events further out in the universe.