On the net this morning , May 6, 2010, are new and interesting pictures from the Herschel space telescope. The Herschel  was launched one year ago, to make it possible for scientists and for us lay people to learn more than ever about stars and about the formation of stars, so to provide a clue to what may have happened when our sun and the planets of our solar system were formed almost five-billion years ago.

The Herschel Space Telescope is also equipped with measuring instruments, designed to search for and to detect the presence of water in outer space. Water is essential for the development of life. The Herschel has found  large quantities of water in our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is providing a large amount of data on star formation. Not only is it a provider of scientific data and beautiful images of the world beyond ours, it is another of our eyes on distant space.