Artist's conception of the space observatories Herschel (right) and Planck (left). Both were launched in May of 2009, and reached the L2 point in July of that year. Herschel, an extremely sensitive infrared telescope, was designed to sift through otherwise invisible star-forming clouds, tracing the path by which stars and galaxies are formed. Planck's objective is to survey the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the radiation left over from the Big Bang.