The European Space Agency’s Herschel Infrared Space Observatory was
launched in 2009 and completed an incredible 3 year mission making more
than 40,000 individual observations at far-infrared to sub-millimetre
wavelengths. At 3.5m, Herschel remains the largest mirror ever launched
into space and has produced images of exquisite detail and quality.
Herschel has revolutionised our understanding of the infrared Universe,
revealing new populations of galaxies and tracing back the history of
cosmic star-formation to the earliest epochs of the Universe. In this
talk, I will introduce the Herschel mission and its legacy and impact on
the study of galaxy evolution and cosmology.