Herschel - the biggest space telescope ever ESA TV Exchanges With its 3,5 meter mirror and cryogenic science payload, the Herschel Space Observatory will deliver unprecedented images and spectra of very cool, distant, and poorly known objects in the universe. As the first of a new generation of space telescopes, Herschel will be studying stars being born in our own Galaxy, the evolution of newborn galaxies billions of light-years away, and primitive objects dating from the formation of our own solar system. Herschel will provide unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, thanks to the largest mirror ever used in space and three instruments with detectors kept at temperatures close to absolute zero.