Bonus: Herschel 10 years on
14th May 2009 marked the the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel was a cornerstone mission for ESA, the European Space Agency, with the goal of unveiling the hidden Universe. In this special bonus edition of Pythagorean Astronomy, marking 10 years since Herschel's launch, Cardiff University's Dr Chris North finds out how it did this, and what astronomers have uncovered over the past decade.\n\nSuch missions take a lot of planning, and Herschel was decades in the making. But they also far outlive the operational lifetime of the spacecraft itself. Herschel\u2019s liquid helium coolant ran out on 29th April 2013, and the spacecraft was switched off shortly afterwards. With 25,000 observations in the bag, and having imaged around 10% of the sky, scientific discoveries are still being made with data from Herschel.\n\nBut what have we learned from Herschel, and what is there still to learn? We\u2019ve had a lot of involvement in Herschel here in Cardiff University, from the design and build of the scientific instruments to the analysis of its data. What better people to ask than those that helped run the mission, and who are using its data to continue to make scientific discoveries a decade on from its launch.\n\nChris, who was the UK Herschel Outreach Officer, speaks with Cardiff-based colleagues Professor Matt Griffin, lead scientist on the SPIRE instrument onboard Herschel, cosmic dust investigator\xa0Prof Haley Gomez, galaxy hunter\xa0Dr Mattia Negrello, and star former Dr Sarah Ragan.