The infrared astronomy is new and brings lots of results. In less than three decades, the astronomers working in infrared discovered thousands of new galaxies and have made surprising discoveries such as the enormous quantity of water vapor contained in the galaxie. But scientists know that there is still lots more of things to discover.

The submillimeter band is a spectrum part which is still unexplored in astronomy due to the Earth's atmopheric attenuation. This spectral band is very interesting for the study of gas and dust, within our galaxie or other ones, proceeding to the formation of new stars.

The main objective of HERSCHEL satellite is to perform a complete study of the sky and the submillimeter band of a few hundreds of astrophysical objects and to characterise their chemistry, their metallic rate, their dust content and their history in term of stars formation. This will enable to create an atlas of the molecules in the interstellar environment, and to observe in a unique way the key molecules of this environment chemistry. The molecular chemistry related to planets, comets and satellites' atmosphere is also one of the scientific objectives of this mission.

For the "general public", find on the Herschel France website, proposed by CNES, CEA, and CNRS, www.herschel.fr, all Herschel mission scientific news, as well as much more information...