ESA launches 2 space observatories

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A rocket has launched two scientific space observatories that will help scientists better understand the formation of the universe.

The Arian-5 rocket blasted off from the European Space Agency's launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America.

26 minutes after lift-off, the rocket released into orbit the Herschel space telescope, followed two minutes later by the Planck observatory.

Billed by the ESA as two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecrafts ever built, the observatories will begin a 60-day journey to the Lagrange point, an orbital slot 1.5 million kilometers from earth.

The Herschel telescope was named after British astronomer William Herschel. It has the largest mirror of any space telescope now in orbit. Its 3.5-meter diameter primary mirror is one-and-a-half-times the size of the Hubble Telescope's main reflector.

A rocket has launched two scientific space observatories that will help scientists better understand the formation of the universe.

The spacecraft is a far-infrared and sub-millimeter telescope which will investigate how stars and galaxies form and how they evolve.

By studying infrared light, it will be able to see through clouds of dust that currently obscure astronomers' views of star and galaxy formations, to illuminate the processes behind them.