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The European Space Agency's Herschel telescope is up and running, with its first observations revealing water and carbon as well as dozens of distant galaxies.
The new space telescope, which launched on May 14 with its sibling Planck, has now carried out its first test observations with all of its instruments.
Herschel is the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its observations in the far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths of light will allow astronomers to study some of the coldest objects in space, not visible in other wavelengths.