Early Herschel results on evolved stars and planetary nebulae

Herschel, an ESA space observatory equipped with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia with important participation from NASA, was launched on 14 May 2009. With its 3.5m diameter primary mirror, Herschel is the largest space telescope ever launched into space, and carries onboard three science instruments, whose focal plane units are cryogenically cooled inside a superfluid helium cryostat. The PACS and SPIRE instruments provide broadband imaging photometry in six bands centred at 75, 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 microns and imaging spectroscopy over the range 55-672 microns. The HIFI instrument provides very high-resolution heterodyne spectroscopy over the ranges 157-212 and 240-625 microns. The results obtained already in the first year and a half of routine science operations demonstrate that Herschel will have strong impact on all research fields, from Solar System studies to the area of Cosmology, from the analysis of star formation to the mysteries of galaxy formation. In this talk I will review the Herschel highlights in the area of evolved stars in general and of planetary nebulae more in particular, resulting from observations performed with the three instruments onboard Herschel since launch. This will be exemplified by a few observational results, just the tip of the iceberg of what is yet to come in the remaining year and a half of science operations.