The Herschel Space Telescope - Episode 2

The second of two programmes which follows the engineers and astronomers who are working on the biggest telescope ever sent to space, in one of the most important missions in the history of European spaceflight. Jonathon Amos joins Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff University and his international team as they aimed to peer through the areas in space that are invisible to other telescopes. This is the story of their aims to solve the mystery behind galaxy and star formation and how these processes eventually gave rise to life-bearing planets like Earth. In this episode, first broadcast in 2009, the telescope is blasted into space, and the team reflect on their first discoveries and future possibilities for the astronomers around the world.