Spectacular Scenes from Deep Space

Last month Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown, opened its eyes and "saw" the famous whirlpool galaxy.

The huge size of the telescope, combined with its use of super-short light waves, meant that the images sent back were of extraordinary quality. The detail provided meant that astronomers could see structures in the galaxy that could not be imaged by visible light.

But that was just a test. This month, according to Science Daily, Herschel has carried out the first test observations with all its instruments, with spectacular results. Galaxies, star-forming regions and dying stars comprised the telescope’s first targets. The instruments provided spectacular data at their first attempt, finding water, carbon, and revealing dozens of distant galaxies.

On its very first day, Herschel's views of distant galaxies showed impressive details -- and also presented astronomers with images of galaxies new to science. Meanwhile, another instrument aboard Herschel provided a rare glimpse of the makeup of atoms and molecules in a star-forming region in the constellation Cygnus. According to Science Daily, "This makes it a powerful tool to study the role of gas and dust in the formation of stars and planets and the evolution of galaxies."

(Photo: spiral galaxy in Pisces as seen from Herschel telescope.Credit: ESA and the SPIRE consortium)