Launched by Ariane 5 in May 2009, the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory (formerly called Far InfraRed and Submillimetre Telescope or FIRST) is the first of a new generation of space telescopes - bigger than any of its predecessors at approximately seven and a half metres high and four metres wide and weighing around three tons, it is the first space observatory covering the full Far InfraRed and Submillimetre waveband, and the largest to work at those wavelengths. It is located 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth, around the second Lagrangian point, farther than any previous space telescope.
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