Herschel has built a huge catalogue of far-infrared and sub-mm images of the sky.

BBC: Herschel space telescope to go blind

With its far-infrared detectors, Herschel has been able to re-visit familiar objects to provide new data.

BBC: Herschel space telescope to go blind

Paper: "Imaging live humans through smoke and flames using far-infrared digital holography, " M.

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Esa hopes to join a future far-infrared telescope project called Spica.

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Bell says she was influenced by far-infrared technology (man-made thermal energy).

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The far-infrared telescope is named after William Herschel, the 18th Century astronomer who - as we all know - discovered Uranus from his back garden in Bath in the west of England.

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It was equipped with a 3.5m mirror - the largest monolithic mirror ever flown - and three state-of-the-art instruments sensitive to long wavelengths of light, in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre range (55 to 672 microns).

BBC: Herschel space telescope to go blind

It can use its High Frequency Instrument to look for the infrared emission from dust that is warmed by stars associated with far-off galaxies.

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The large mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive infrared detectors of ESO's 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) make it by far the best tool for this job.

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