ESA/Hubble Science Announcements

JWST Drop-in Data Pipeline Session at EAS 2024

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:00:00 +0200

- Chris Evans, Paule Sonnentrucker, Macarena Garcia Marin -

The 2024 European Astronomical Society (EAS) Annual Meeting will be held on 1–5 July 2024 in Padova, Italy. The scientific programme for the week includes several Symposia and Special Sessions that are centred on the latest results from JWST.

We are pleased to announce that ESA will be holding a drop-in session on the JWST data pipeline at 1:15pm on Tuesday 2 July. The objective for this lunch session is to provide an opportunity for you, the user, to be able to ask for help or advice regarding processing of JWST data with the Science Calibration Pipeline.

The session will start with a brief summary of the status of the observatory and the data pipeline, and experts from the ESA JWST NIRSpec and MIRI teams will be available to answer your questions. There will also be further opportunities to follow-up with the team during the week at the ESA stand. While we can’t promise to be able to resolve all of your issues in this short session — our goal is that it serve as a first chance to meet some of the JWST team in a relatively informal environment, and they can point you in the best direction for additional help if required. The JWST team will be happy to hear your thoughts and feedback about the pipeline and its algorithms.

Let us also bring to your attention two ESA-organised lunch sessions during the week, that we encourage you to join to learn more about ESA’s missions and activities. The first will present the services, tools and assets offered by the ESA Space Science Archives, at 1:15pm on Wednesday 3 July. The second will give an overview of the ESA Science Programme, at 1:15pm on Thursday 4 July.

Some of the sessions during the week that will strongly feature JWST results include:

Symposium S1: Unveiling Black Hole Growth across Cosmic Time in the JWST and LISA era;
Symposium S3: New light on galaxies from Cosmic Dawn to Noon;
Symposium S6: European Laboratory Astrophysics in the JWST era;
Special Session 6: Chemical evolution in the era of JWST: from stars to galaxies;
Special Session 18: Star formation in Local Group environments and in the conditions of Cosmic Noon.

If you are interested to join the EAS meeting, registration is open until 30 June at: https://eas.unige.ch/EAS2024/registration.jsp

JADES Data Release 3

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:00:00 +0200

- Francesco D’Eugenio (Cambridge), on behalf of the JADES Consortium -

The JWST Advanced Early Extragalactic Survey (JADES) is a collaboration between the Guaranteed Time Observation teams of the NIRCam and NIRSpec instruments. The goal of JADES is to reveal the physical properties of galaxies in the young Universe, from when it was less than two billion years old up to the formation of the first galaxies right after the Cosmic ‘Dark Ages’.

JADES makes optimal use of the synergies between NIRCam and NIRSpec to present a complete view of galaxies, combining their morphologies and total fluxes from the imaging, with detailed physical properties that can be measured from rest-frame UV, optical and near-IR spectra. The NIRSpec part of the programme uses the micro-shutter assembly (MSA), which enables observations of more than one hundred targets simultaneously.

JADES has observed two tiers in depth: a deep tier, aimed at the faintest and most distant objects, and a medium tier, aimed at brighter galaxies. The first data release of JADES provided data from one of the regions in the deep tier, including 250 unique spectra. The second release provided imaging of the JADES Origin Field that lies within the GOODS-South region.

We are happy to announce the third data release (DR3), which provides new, multi-band images in the GOODS-North field, which includes the iconic Hubble Deep Field region. It also includes more than 4000 unique NIRSpec/MSA spectra in both the GOODS-North and GOODS-South fields, together with 2000 measured redshifts. Most of the spectra span the full wavelength range of NIRSpec from 0.7 to 5 microns, and use two spectral resolutions: observations at R~100 with the double-pass prism for high sensitivity and continuum science, and observations with the medium-resolution gratings (R~1000) to study the detailed properties of emission lines.

The DR3 products are now available to the community here as Higher-Level Science Products from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at STScI. The release includes the longest on-source NIRSpec observations to date, reaching 70 hours for the highest-priority targets! The spectra of galaxies such as GN-z11, GS-z11-0 and GS-z12-0 reveal the surprising physical properties of galaxies in the earliest phases of the Universe, back to just 350 million years after the Big Bang. The products also include image previews of the NIRSpec spectra, with the example of GN-z11 shown in Image B.

The NIRSpec instrument was provided by ESA, and was built by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space, with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre providing its detector and micro-shutter subsystems. NIRCam was provided by the University of Arizona.

Science with the Hubble & Webb Conference

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:00:00 +0200

- Chris Evans & Paule Sonnentrucker -

The Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VII: Stars, Gas and Dust in the Universe conference was held in Porto, Portugal from 29 April to 2 May 2024. This was the latest in the series of ESA-sponsored conferences on the science from the missions, and was organised in collaboration with STScI and the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto.

After much anticipation of the complementary capabilities of Hubble and Webb, we are now in the remarkable period of having these two pioneering observatories in science operations at the same time. The rich scientific programme of the conference emphasised the unique scientific synergies between Hubble and Webb, and with other space and ground-based facilities. The programme featured 22 invited talks, 36 contributed talks, and 22 posters; the full list of talks is available from the conference page. The conference was run as a hybrid meeting with 105 in-person and 38 remote participants.

The conference included two breakout discussion sessions on ‘Maximising Hubble’s Synergies and Legacy’ and ‘Looking to the 2030s and beyond’, with a focus on how to best use the unique capabilities of Hubble and Webb in the coming years, and on the scientific questions that will be driving the field in the 2030s and what facilities will be needed to address them. These sessions helped to further highlight the broad diversity of science enabled by Hubble’s unique UV and visible capabilities, particularly when combined with Webb’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity. Chris Evans (ESA) and Jennifer Wiseman (NASA) also gave a public talk on science highlights from the two missions at the Rectory Building of the University of Porto in the historic centre of the city.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the members of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) and Local Organising Committee (LOC), who contributed to a successful, stimulating and enjoyable conference:

SOC: Chris Evans (Chair), Jarle Brinchmann, Beth Biller, Daniela Calzetti, Paul Crowther, Kalliopi Dasyra, Annalisa De Cia, Melissa McClure, Stefanie Milam, Nathalie Nguyen-Quoc Ouellette, Neill Reid, Megan Reiter, Jennifer Wiseman, Adi Zitrin.

LOC: Paule Sonnentrucker (co-Chair), Jarle Brinchmann (co-Chair), Joana Bateira, Brett Blacker, Afonso do Vale, Maria Gunnarsson, Sherita Hanna, Pam Jeffries, Holly Reedy, Jean-Baptiste Regnard, Elsa Marta Silva, Sofia Velasco, Daniel Vaz.

Latest updates to the eHST Science Archive and ESASky

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0100

- Chris Evans, María Arévalo Sánchez, Deborah Baines, Javier Espinosa Aranda, Mónica Fernández Barreiro, Marcos López-Caniego Alcarria, Bruno Merín Martin, Paule Sonnentrucker -

The European Hubble Space Telescope (eHST) Science Archive is hosted at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). Building on the long-standing partnership between NASA and ESA on Hubble, the eHST archive provides a European mirror for the public data in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The eHST interface has been designed at the ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC) for effective and intuitive exploration of this rich data archive, and includes accompanying catalogues and higher-level data products from MAST.

To help maximise the science return from these data, a new visualisation tool for spectroscopy from the COS and STIS instruments has been included in the eHST archive. The new tool enables users to plot the spectra over custom ranges, inspect the flux (and associated error) values at each wavelength, compare multiple observations for quick visual inspection of data quality, and plot separate orders or segments of the data. If the observation IDs are already known, they can simply be entered in the observations box in the spectral viewer. If the data are identified from an object search in the eHST search page, individual files can be opened using the ‘Viewer’ icon, or multiple observations can be selected and copied across to the viewer using the ‘Download metadata and products associated’ option in the left-hand panel (see Image B). For quick previews, fixed-format postcard previews of each reduced spectrum are also still available for each file. The latest version of eHST also includes the Hubble Advanced Spectral Products (HASP), a new product from MAST which provides coadded and combined spectra from COS and STIS of a given target; these can also be displayed in the spectral viewer, for inspection of the data or comparisons with other targets.

We are also delighted to announce the release of a new version of ESASky (v6.0). This is ESA’s multi-mission visualisation interface to explore astronomical observations, including data and outreach images from Hubble and Webb, in the context of other missions and published catalogues. The latest version now includes the feature of user areas. After a quick registration process, you can now save ESASky sessions, customise the layout of ESASky, and upload your own tables of data for quick visualisation and comparison with other catalogues and available data. The ‘sessions’ feature means that you can now save the current state of the application, including selected datasets, and easily return to it later, without the need to recreate the session from scratch. Further details on the new user area feature are available here.

We encourage the European user community to explore these latest features at: https://hst.esac.esa.int/ehst and https://sky.esa.int, and to provide us with your feedback.

Upcoming Science with the Hubble & Webb Conference

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0100

- Chris Evans -

The Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VII: Stars, Gas and Dust in the Universe conference will be held in Porto, Portugal from 29 April to 2 May 2024. This is the latest in our series of ESA-sponsored conferences that showcase the science from these two flagship missions. A particular motivation and focus for the conference is that we are in the remarkable position of having both Hubble and Webb in science operations at the same time. Their unique capabilities are now combining to give us spectacular new views of the Universe, which are complemented by multi-wavelength observations from a diverse range of ground and other space facilities.

The objectives of the conference are to:

highlight the latest Hubble and Webb results in studies of stars, gas and dust over all scales, with a focus on results with strong synergies between the two missions and with other facilities;
identify key topics for new programmes and initiatives that will harness the powerful combined capabilities of these two observatories;
explore future synergies of Hubble and Webb with other existing and planned facilities; and
look ahead to the future scientific questions that will shape astrophysics in the 2030s and beyond.

The provisional programme for the conference is now available here. Although the abstract deadline for in-person participation has passed, the conference will be run as a hybrid meeting, with the talks streamed for remote participants. If you would like to join the conference remotely, virtual registration is available at the registration page.

2023 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb highlights

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0100

-Bethany Downer-

2023 marked another eventful year for the ESA/Hubble/Webb science outreach team.

This year we celebrated the first year of science operations with Webb. Some notable milestones that were shared with the media and the public included Webb’s confirming its first exoplanet, the first detection of any form of light emitted by an exoplanet as small and as cool as the rocky planets in our own Solar System, the investigation of the complex dusty structures of the Fomalhaut system, the confirmation of gas — specifically water vapour — around a comet in the main asteroid belt for the first time, the mapping of a large plume on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the discovery of a carbon source on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Webb’s first detection of a heavy element from a star merger (tellurium).

European scientists also made great use of Webb’s instruments to publish a variety of notable results throughout 2023. This includes Webb’s detection of what may be its smallest asteroid to date, the discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of the molecular cloud Chameleon I, the first detection of a crucial carbon molecule in a planet-forming disc, the observation of carbon-rich dust grains in the first billion years of cosmic time, the detection of water vapour in a rocky planet-forming zone, the detection of carbon-bearing molecules (including methane and carbon dioxide) on exoplanet K2-18 b, and Webb’s contribution to our understanding of how rocky planets can form in extreme environments.

Each of Webb’s new images continues to be met with excitement from the science community and the public alike. This includes ESA/Webb’s popular Picture of the Month series, which features a new original image from Webb each month and whose targets in 2023 have included the lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2149, Herbig Haro object 797 (HH 797), the countless stars in the vast irregular galaxy NGC 6822, and the spiral galaxies NGC 5068, M51 and M83.

2023 also saw a variety of notable Webb image releases. To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, a new Webb image was released of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Headlines also include Webb’s views of popular targets like NGC 346, the Ring Nebula, Sagittarius C, the Orion Bar region of the Orion nebula, and Cassiopeia A (MIRI and NIRCam images).

While Webb continued to capture the public’s attention, the Hubble Space Telescope reminded us that it continues to capture valuable data for astronomers with its unique capabilities, giving us more beautiful images for everyone to enjoy. In 2023, Hubble directly measured the mass of a lone white dwarf for the first time, uncovered what may be the best evidence yet for the presence of a rare class of intermediate-sized black holes, observed a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient where it wasn’t expected to be found (far away from any host galaxy), and measured the size of the nearest transiting Earth-sized planet. Notable new Hubble images include those of Jupiter and Uranus, the 33rd anniversary image of NGC 1333, and the dazzling star cluster known as Terzan 12. Hubble also followed up its observations of the asteroid Dimorphos (which was the target of a deliberate NASA spacecraft collision in September 2022 to alter its trajectory) in March 2023 and July 2023.

Of particular note, in November 2023 Hubble and Webb teamed up to study an expansive galaxy cluster known as MACS0416, resulting in a stunning panchromatic image that combines visible and infrared light to assemble one of the most comprehensive views of the Universe ever obtained.

Looking ahead to ESA/Webb’s and ESA/Hubble’s activities in 2024, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescopes’ continued success and the use of Hubble and Webb data by European institutions and scientists. ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb can help scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the 2023 release highlights mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch with us as early as possible so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!

In the meantime, we encourage you to follow the ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb social media channels to keep up with the latest updates about how European scientists and engineers are contributing to this mission. As always, we encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or ideas you’d like to discuss!

Announcement of the 2024 ESA Hubble and Webb Calendar

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0100

-Bethany Downer-

To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and the completion of the first year of science operations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb have released a new calendar for 2024 that showcases beautiful imagery from both missions.

The 2024 calendar features a selection of images from Press Releases (from Hubble and Webb), Hubble Pictures of the Week and Webb Pictures of the Month published throughout 2023. These include imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It can now be accessed electronically for anyone to print, share and enjoy (please see the links provided below).

The images featured in the calendar are as follows:

Cover: The subject of the first anniversary image from the James Webb Space Telescope is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen.

January: Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. The near-infrared image makes the ring’s intricate detail visible, while the mid-infrared image reveals concentric features in the outer regions of the nebula’s ring.

February: In 2023 several images from Hubble of ‘jellyfish’ galaxies, named for their beautiful trailing tentacles, were released. These jellyfish are all travelling through galaxy clusters, ploughing through the diffuse gas that pervades such clusters. The resulting ‘ram pressure’ strips gas from the galaxies and creates these trailing streamers, where new stars form.

March: This month features three images that give radically different views of the galaxy NGC 6822. At the bottom, in Webb’s mid-infrared image, the emission of light by galactic dust is prominent, obscuring the galaxy’s stars. In the middle, the near-infrared image shows the galaxy’s countless stars in incredible detail. The two views are combined in the top image.

April: Released to celebrate Hubble’s 33rd anniversary in April 2023, this month features the star-forming nebula NGC 1333 in the Perseus molecular cloud. Hubble’s colourful view, showcasing its unique ability to obtain images in light from ultraviolet to near-infrared, unveils an effervescent cauldron of gases and dust stirred up by newly forming stars within the dark cloud.

May: A massive galaxy cluster, SPT-CL J0019-2026, dominates the centre of this month’s image from Hubble. The view is populated with a serene collection of elliptical and spiral galaxies, but galaxies surrounding the central cluster appear stretched into bright arcs, an amazing example of gravitational lensing.

June: Webb’s view of the Orion Bar region is a part of the Orion Nebula that hosts intense star formation activity and active astrochemistry. Harsh ultraviolet light from the stars of the Trapezium Cluster carves out a rich tapestry of cavities and filaments.

July: The distorted galaxy NGC 3256 is the result of an ancient clash between two galaxies. The image from Webb captures infrared light from dust grains, irradiated by young stars that were formed from the collision. The image from Hubble highlights hot, massive stars in the two galactic cores, shrouded by dark dust that blocks visible light.

August: A portion of the open cluster NGC 6530 appears as a roiling wall of smoke studded with stars in this month’s image from Hubble. The cluster is set within the larger Lagoon Nebula, a gigantic interstellar cloud of gas and dust; it is the nebula that gives this image its distinctly smokey appearance.

September: In its first year the James Webb Space Telescope has returned stunning infrared images of the Solar System’s outer planets and some of their moons. Featured this month are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

October: The graceful winding arms of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 stretch across this month’s Webb image. This galactic portrait is a composite image that integrates both near-infrared and mid-infrared data. Red colours trace out dust grains, while orange and yellow reveal regions of gas ionised by recently formed star clusters.

November: This month features a star-filled view from the Hubble Space Telescope of Terzan 12, a globular cluster embedded in our Milky Way galaxy. Creeping tendrils of galactic gas and dust blanket large portions of Terzan 12, giving some stars a sinister red hue. Relatively unobscured stars shine brightly in white and blue.

December: This month’s image features the central region of the Chameleon I dark cloud. Cold, wispy cloud material is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of a young, shrouded protostar. Its study points at icy molecules forming in clouds of gas and dust that will one day form stars and planets

Please note that hard copies are not available directly from ESA/Hubble/Webb. We invite you to avail yourself of the free calendar formats below.

Announcement of the Hubble & Webb “Stars, Gas & Dust in the Universe” Conference

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0100

- Chris Evans -

We are delighted to announce the latest in our series of ESA-sponsored conferences, in collaboration with STScI, which highlight science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The Stars, Gas & Dust in the Universe conference will be held in Porto, Portugal from 29 April to 2 May 2024, in the week after the 34th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.

After much anticipation of the complementary capabilities of these two pioneering observatories, we are now in the remarkable position of having them both in science operations at the same time. Results from Hubble and Webb are giving us unique views of stars, gas and dust across all distance scales. These span nearby star and planet formation, the properties of the interstellar medium, dust production in supernovae and evolved stars, and star and dust formation in the early Universe.

Of course, Hubble and Webb are far from working alone. A broad range of ground-based and space-borne facilities are helping to provide us with a multi-wavelength view to unlock our understanding of the Universe. These include the rich legacy from the Gaia mission, the start of science operations with Euclid to explore the dark Universe, the exquisite resolution and sensitivity of ALMA in the submillimetre, and the upcoming first light of Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Looking ahead, the second half of the decade will bring major new space missions, such as Roman, PLATO and ARIEL, and the first light of the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope.

The conference programme will feature a combination of invited and contributed talks, as well as the possibility of poster presentations. The objectives of the conference are to:

highlight the latest Hubble and Webb results in studies of stars, gas and dust over all scales, with a focus on results with strong synergies between the two missions and with other facilities;
identify key topics for new programmes and initiatives that will harness the powerful combined capabilities of these two observatories;
explore future synergies of Hubble and Webb with other existing and planned facilities; and
look ahead to the future scientific questions that will shape astrophysics in the 2030s and beyond.

Registration and abstract submission will open on 18 December here. The deadline for abstract submissions is 26 January 2024.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Porto next year!

Masterclass on Webb data processing

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +0200

-Chris Evans and Paule Sonnentrucker-

We are delighted to announce plans for a Masterclass on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data processing, to be held at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), near Madrid, on 12–14 December 2023.

The Masterclass is primarily intended for researchers from across the ESA Member States who have yet to work with JWST data or have had limited experience so far, and want to build their expertise and confidence. The aim is to provide a solid foundation in the basics of the calibration pipeline, to walk participants through examples of science-case-driven data from several of JWST’s observing modes, and to illustrate specific workarounds that can be used to optimise the outcome of particular datasets. Our goal is that those joining the Masterclass will then be better prepared to embark on the analysis of data that have already been taken (or are coming soon in Cycle 2), as well as science exploitation of new data in future cycles, and to become European ambassadors for best practices of science exploitation with JWST.

Provisional topics include:

General introduction to the mission and its archives
Introduction to the JWST calibration pipeline
Imaging observations
Time-series data
Slit spectroscopy
IFU spectroscopy

The Masterclass will be run by experts from the team that supports JWST Science Operations, with a mixture of presentations and hands-on exercises. The exercises will feature the most used scientific modes, which include spectroscopy and imaging from MIRI, NIRSpec and NIRCam.

Note that some preparation work will be required ahead of the Masterclass. Participants will need to install the calibration pipeline and download relevant datasets, so that everything is set up and ready for use at the start of the Masterclass. Information and material will be communicated in good time before the Masterclass, and opportunities for troubleshooting by the team will be available ahead of time.

Applications to join the Masterclass are now open here. To ensure a good balance of instructors to participants, the number of places will be limited, so please give a brief outline of your reasons to attend in your application. The closing date for applications is 31 August, and we will inform successful applicants by mid-September.

New Hubble and Webb Working Groups

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +0200

-Chris Evans-

Two Working Groups (WGs) were recently convened by the Interim Director at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), to provide advice and recommendations on the future use of Hubble and Webb in the key areas of long-term variability monitoring and exoplanet initiatives.

The charters for the WGs are available at Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives and Long-term variability monitoring strategies, and their membership includes representatives from the ESA Member States. The WGs have been tasked for their respective topics to seek input from the user community, to identify science themes to prioritise for future programmes, to advise on optimal timing of follow-up observations, and to develop concepts for potentially large-scale Director’s Discretionary programmes. Both WGs have had their initial meetings and begun their work, and are now seeking community input.

Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives: The WG has invited community input via a short online survey and/or short white papers (no more than one page of text and one page of figures). Further details of the WG activities are available here, including a list of FAQs on the white papers and next steps. There is a town hall on the WG activities for early-career researchers at 3 pm CEST on 31 July 2023.

Long-term variability monitoring strategies: The WG has invited community input via a short online survey and/or in the form of short contributions (ideally limited to one page of text, plus figures/references). Short contributions should be sent as a pdf file to wg-longterm@stsci.edu. Two particular areas where the WG is looking for input are long time baseline science opportunities and a concept for a Director’s Discretionary Time programme to probe high-redshift transients.

The deadline for submissions to both WGs is 8 September 2023. Informed by these community inputs, the WGs will develop preliminary recommendations in late 2023, with final recommendations in early 2024.

The 2023 European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting

Tue, 02 May 2023 10:00:00 +0200

-Chris Evans-

Final plans are now coming together for an exciting agenda at this year’s European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting, in Kraków, Poland (10–14 July 2023). Coinciding with the first anniversary of JWST science operations that week, there is a rich scientific programme of JWST results at the meeting.

To set the scene at the start of the week there will be a JWST Community Session (Special Session #3) on the first day (10 July 2023). This will provide the community with an update on the observatory status and future science timeline, the European JWST data archive (eJWST), and selected results and lessons learned from some of the European-led Early Release Science programmes. The session will also include generous time for questions and discussion.

Let me also draw your attention to the JWST-focused Symposia (S) and Special Sessions (SS) during the week that will feature the exciting science results from the first year of science operations in much more depth:

Lastly, if you want to learn more about ESA’s wider activities, there will be two ESA-led lunch sessions during the week on the ESA Space Science Archives (including demonstrations of ESASky and ESA Datalabs) and the ESA Science programme (targeting early career researchers in particular).

I look forward to seeing many of you in Kraków!

Reflections from the JWST Users Committee

Tue, 02 May 2023 10:00:00 +0200

-Stephane Charlot (Institut d’astrophysique de Paris)-

As I write I have just finished my term as a NIRSpec team and ESA representative on the JWST Users Committee (JSTUC). My time on the committee has spanned the intense and remarkable work by all those involved in the project ahead of the launch and during commissioning, and into the tremendously exciting first nine months of science operations. Having attended the First Science Results from JWST Conference at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in December, it was simply incredible to see the impact of this fantastic new observatory across a broad range of topics in just its first few months of operations.

The JSTUC was established to provide user advice to the observatory to maximise its scientific performance. The committee meets at least twice a year, typically with a range of presentations over two days on the status of the observatory, news from each of the science instruments, updates from the partner agencies (including ESA), and topical matters for discussion; copies of the presentations from each meeting are publicly available from the JSTUC page.

As we settle into regular science operations, the JSTUC will be an important forum for discussion of topics such as: the provision and prioritisation of new capabilities/modes, the policies regarding Exclusive Access Periods, details of the future science timeline for proposals, and more. The reports from each meeting are addressed to the STScI Director and the JWST Senior Project Scientist, and are also fed back into the various ESA science programme committees; it is clear that our input is taken seriously and taken into consideration in future planning and decisions within the ESA/NASA/CSA partnership.

As a user committee, the JSTUC serves as a link between the project and the European community. To fulfil this role, it is important that it receives feedback from you, the community. The current ESA JSTUC representatives are Kalliopi Dasyra (University of Athens) and Dominika Wylezalek (University of Heidelberg). If you, the users in any ESA Member State, have any concerns related to the use of JWST, let me encourage you to contact our representatives, who can then raise issues for discussion by the committee.

While the breathtaking discoveries of JWST produce amazing scientific advances every day, and the Hubble Space Telescope continues to valiantly collect spectacular observations in the complementary ultraviolet and optical domains, a revolution is brewing at these wavelengths with the prospect of the future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The excitement is not going to fade away, and incredible moments await us in the months, years, and decades to come, in which I hope the ESA community will continue to play a prominent role.

2022 ESA/Hubble Highlights

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0100

-By Bethany Downer-

2022 was another busy year for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

In 2022 scientists throughout Europe published a large number of exciting new results. Of the various ESA/Hubble science releases published this year, some memorable scientific news that garnered particular public interest included Hubble’s detection of the light of Earendel, a star that existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang, and the report of direct evidence for a lone black hole drifting through interstellar space by a precise mass measurement. After 32 years of operation, it’s staggering to consider the magnitude and impact of the telescope’s continuing output of breakthrough results.

All of the many beautiful photo releases published this year have been popular with the public. Most notably, Hubble celebrated its 32nd birthday with a galaxy grouping, and teamed up with its new friend in space Webb to observe the aftermath of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. Hubble celebrated Halloween with a beautiful glowing galaxy cluster, and finished off 2022 by capturing different moments in a far-off supernova explosion in a single snapshot. The popular ESA/Hubble Pictures of the Week series was covered roughly 15% more in the media in 2021 than in 2020. Notable images from this weekly series include Herbig–Haro object 34, spiral galaxy M74 (which coincided with a new image of the same object as seen by Webb), and a portion of the open cluster NGC 6530.

Looking ahead to ESA/Hubble’s activities in 2023, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescope’s continued success and the use of Hubble data by European institutions and scientists. As Chief Science Communications Officer, my primary goal is to promote the Hubble Space Telescope’s science for the European Space Agency in close collaboration with the ESA Project Scientist for Hubble. ESA/Hubble and ESAHubble.org can help Hubble scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the 2022 release highlights mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!

The new European Hubble Space Telescope (eHST)

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0100

-By María Arévalo Sánchez, Javier Espinosa Aranda, Mónica Fernández Barreiro, Marcos López-Caniego Alcarria, Francisco Javier Ballester Arenas, Bruno Merín, Chris Evans, Paule Sonnentrucker-

We are delighted to announce the release of a new version of the European Hubble Space Telescope (eHST) Science Archive, hosted at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid. The ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC) has developed a new infrastructure for the user interface and backend services of the eHST archive, to help maximise the science return of this precious data resource.

The eHST archive employs common procedures and tools, originally developed by the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) in close collaboration with ESDC and the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute, to synchronise observational metadata and publicly-available data by mirroring the MAST HST archive.

With more than 1.5 million observations now completed by Hubble, the new eHST interface has been designed to enable effective and intuitive exploration of this rich data archive. It also includes accompanying catalogues (e.g., the Hubble Source Catalogue) and higher-level data products.

The eHST archive has evolved to feature a new user interface to allow more intuitive and visual data exploration than before. New functionalities include:

A modern look and format that will be deployed across all of the ESDC Science Archives. This follows a common design and workflow to enhance data exploration and navigation between ESA’s different missions.
Seamless integration with ESASky, ESA’s multi-mission visualisation interface. This allows Hubble data to be explored in the context of other missions (including the latest available data from the James Webb Space Telescope) and published catalogues.
A new image viewer enabling quick-look inspection of FITS files, which includes image manipulation without needing to download the files.
Optimised searches using simple commands offered in the user interface, with users then able to replicate them in other platforms (e.g., CURL, Astroquery).
Enhanced navigation through the variety of data on a given source enabled by filtering of all metadata properties and data products to identify the relevant files.
Access to the observing proposals and the Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) of publications from each Hubble program. The DOI archive can also be used to download the relevant data products from a given publication.

We encourage you all to test it and provide us with your feedback.

Announcement of the 2023 ESA Hubble and Webb Calendar

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0100

-By Bethany Downer -

To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and the first year of operations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb have released a new calendar that showcases beautiful imagery from both missions for 2023.

The 2023 calendar features a selection of images from Press Releases (from Hubble and Webb), Hubble Pictures of the Week and Webb Pictures of the Month published throughout 2022. These include imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It can now be accessed electronically for anyone to print, share and enjoy (please see the links provided below).

The images featured in the calendar are as follows:

Cover: This landscape of mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible regions of star birth.

January: The protostar L1527, shown in this image from the James Webb Space Telescope, is embedded within a cloud of material that is feeding its growth. Material ejected from the star has cleared out cavities above and below it, whose boundaries glow orange and blue in this infrared view.

February: The image on the left is the first deep-field image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showcasing thousands of galaxies of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 in the near-infrared. The image on the right from the Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy cluster Abell 611, located roughly 3.2 billion light-years from Earth.

March: In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, the James Webb Space Telescope showcases the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in infrared light, including tens of thousands of previously unseen young stars that are obscured by cosmic dust in visible-light images.

April: This month features four galaxy mergers. The objects are IC 1623 (top left, as seen by Webb), Arp 248 (bottom left, as seen by Hubble), Arp 282 (top right, as seen by Hubble), and IC 2431 (bottom right, as seen by Hubble).

May: Two views from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal the planetary nebula NGC 3132, also known as the Southern Ring. The left image is a sharp near-infrared view of the nebula, while the view on the right is in mid-infrared wavelengths, and captures the dust shrouding one of the white dwarf stars at the nebula’s centre.

June: Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System, is featured here in near-infrared wavelengths as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. Different colours mark the light from the planet’s aurorae, and the clouds and hazes at different depths in the atmosphere. The Great Red Spot shines brightly with reflected near-infrared light from the Sun.

July: This montage displays four globular star clusters as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Shown here are Liller 1 (top left), Terzan 9 (bottom left), Terzan 4 (top right) and NGC 6569 (bottom right). Each is filled with both redder, older stars and bluer, younger ones.

August: These images show unusual, densely packed groupings of entire galaxies. The left image, in visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope, is of the soon-to-merge galaxies of HCG 40. The right image, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared light, is of the interacting galaxies of HCG 92 — also known as Stephan’s Quintet.

September: This celestial cloudscape from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the colourful region surrounding the Herbig-Haro object HH 505. The Orion Nebula is awash in intense ultraviolet radiation from bright young stars. Outflows from such stars collide with gas and dust, creating the shockwaves known as Herbig-Haro objects that are brightly visible to Hubble.

October: This montage features three views of M74, also known as the Phantom Galaxy. The left section of this image is a visible-light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, while the right section, in mid-infrared wavelengths, comes from the James Webb Space Telescope. In the centre, data from both telescopes are combined for a truly unique view into the heart of the object.

November: Two views of the famous Pillars of Creation, part of the Eagle Nebula, are revealed here by the James Webb Space Telescope. The left, mid-infrared, image details the spread of interstellar dust. On the right, the near-infrared image highlights bright, newly-formed stars.

December: NGC 7038 is displayed in glorious detail here by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image is remarkably detailed, combining over 15 hours of observations to expose distant stars and galaxies in the background. The spiral galaxy filling the frame here contains celestial objects that can be used to measure distances on cosmic scales.

2022 ESA/Webb Highlights

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0100

-By Bethany Downer and Chris Evans-

2022 marked an eventful year for the ESA/Webb science outreach team.

This was kickstarted by the release of Webb’s first images on 11–12 July 2022. These four image releases quickly became recognisable throughout Europe and around the world. Tens of thousands of articles were published online to showcase the telescope’s capabilities, and more than 200 million people were reached by the ESA Webb social media campaigns. As was done for the Hubble 30 celebrations, ESA/Webb invited proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to maximise the reach and impact of Webb’s first images with special events. A total of 43 European events were conducted by more than 60 organisations and institutions, and photos from these events can be explored on the ESA/Webb Flickr page.

Social media was also active in anticipation of the images being released and following their unveiling, as the world sought to share in the excitement. For the #WebbChallenge challenge, the ESA Webb channels invited its Twitter followers to share what observations they are most looking forward to by using the hashtag #WebbChallenge and to pass it onto others. In addition to members of the public, ESA and STScI employees, as well as community event hosts in Europe, took part in the international engagement. #EuropeMeetsWebb was used throughout the buildup to the images release, and #WebbSeesFarther was used to draw from the name of the ESA Webb Brochure throughout online social activities. Over 18 million impressions were made on the ESA/Webb social channels around the first images release.

Since the release of Webb’s first images, a multitude of exciting science results from the community have been shared with the media and members of the public. This includes the detection of carbon dioxide and the first molecular and chemical portrait of the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP 39-b. Webb has also uncovered a cluster of massive galaxies in the process of formation around an extremely red quasar, and teamed up with Hubble to observe the aftermath of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. Most recently, a team of international astronomers reported the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date, seen when the Universe was only 2% of its current age.

Each of Webb’s new images is continually met with excitement from the science community and public alike. This includes the new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month series, which features a new original image from Webb each month and has included targets like the merging galaxy pair II ZW 96, and the spiral galaxy IC 5332. Other notable new image releases that have been met with particular enthusiasm include protostar L1527, the famous Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI), and the stellar nursery 30 Doradus, as well as some targets closer to home, like Neptune, Titan and Jupiter. Stay tuned for more beautiful images coming your way soon!

Looking ahead to ESA/Hubble’s activities in 2023, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescope’s continued success and the use of Webb data by European institutions and scientists. ESA/Webb and esawebb.org can help Webb scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the 2022 Webb release highlights mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch with us as early as possible so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!

In the meantime, we encourage you to follow the ESA/Webb social media channels to keep up with the latest updates about how European scientists and engineers are contributing to this mission:

First Science Results from JWST Conference

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Chris Evans-

Following the successful commissioning of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, and its move into science operations, we are already witnessing the first science breakthroughs enabled by its unprecedented infrared sensitivity and observing capabilities. To share some of these new discoveries, we are pleased to announce a conference on the First Science Results from JWST at the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, USA, on 12–14 December 2022.

With the first science releases and results showcasing the scientific performance of the observatory and its instruments, we can start to plan the ambitious future programmes that will address today’s scientific questions and shape the direction of our field. With this in mind, one of the goals of the conference is to share lessons learned on how best to optimise observations and data analysis, in good time for the Cycle 2 proposal deadline (27 January 2023).

The conference will be organised around the four science themes of Webb (early Universe, galaxy assembly, stellar and planetary lifecycles, and other worlds), with abstracts also welcome from any topic advanced by Webb observations. A small number of late abstracts will be accepted to allow for presentation of breaking results from newly acquired data.

Key dates and further information on the meeting are available here, with the option of either in-person or remote participation.

ESA Hubble/Webb Archives and Simulation Data

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Chris Evans-

Alongside the excitement of the first Webb data, the team at ESAC’s Science Data Centre released the European JWST (eJWST) archive. This provides a fast and user-friendly European interface to Webb data, including quick-look search tools by target or proposal ID, and a powerful visual means to search the archive using ESASky search (see image above).

After the unveiling of the first images and spectra on 12 July, the associated raw data and pipeline-reduced products were ingested into the eJWST archive as soon as they were released. Since then, all public data and pipeline products are now regularly updated on eJWST, including those from the Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science (ERS) programmes and from the other image releases (e.g. the Cartwheel Galaxy and 30 Doradus). Users can also download exclusive access data using their tokens for the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) within the eJWST environment. Further details of the initial release and links to the search tools are in the ESDC Newsletter here.

In addition to providing the community with robust new tools to explore JWST data, the ESDC team have also developed a new version of the European HST (eHST) archive which has undergone extensive beta-testing. The new version includes a new interface and preview tools, and integration with ESASky for easy visualisation. This will be released in mid October, and the team would welcome feedback from users in the coming weeks.

Looking ahead to Cycle 2 proposals, if you are considering programmes with NIRSpec’s powerful multi-object spectroscopy mode, let me also draw your attention to simulated deep-field observations from the NIRSpec team, that can be used as a test dataset for the reduction pipeline. Further details are here.

Launch of the ESASky and ESA/Webb Collaboration

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Bethany Downer and Deborah Baines-

We are so pleased to announce that the ESA/Webb and ESASky teams have collaborated again to incorporate the spectacular Webb images featured on the ESA/Webb website into the ESASky application (as is already done for ESA/Hubble images).

ESASky is a web-based app that helps users to interact with outreach astronomical images and datasets taken in different bands of light, obtained by ESA missions. As this collaboration sought to harness this unique educational tool to engage with a broader audience, users who are interested in the more detailed science behind Webb’s wide variety of breathtaking images can now also enjoy data-driven tools in ESASky! This includes finding Webb's science-ready archival datasets used in the public outreach images, or overlaying ESA's Gaia catalogue on top of a cluster image taken by Webb to better understand the movements and characteristics of stars in a given cluster. The ESA/Webb outreach image pages now link to the appropriate locations on the ESASky portal.

Webb’s very popular new images are known for their beauty, fine detail, and resolution; however, ensuring the quality of the outreach images was preserved once they were imported into the ESASky app has been an important priority. While the ESA/Webb outreach image archive is only just beginning to become populated with awe-inspiring images, all new additions to the archive will continue to be fully tagged with coordinate metadata by the ESA/Webb team. They will be featured in the freely accessible ESASky virtual planetarium as they become available in the coming months and years!

Science teachers and educators can now also use Webb outreach images in ESASky in their virtual classrooms to take their students on a virtual cosmic tour. This is somewhat similar to a planetarium presentation, but with the celestial objects of their choosing and breathtaking Webb images.

Scientists looking for Webb's archival science-ready data of their target objects in ESASky can also determine if outreach images of the objects have been released by ESA/Webb. These can be used in public talks, journal papers, or press releases related to their results.

Future outreach images published by ESA/Webb will be integrated into the ESASky portal as they become available. Stay tuned!

Impact and Reach of Webb’s First Images

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Bethany Downer -

In July the dawn of a new era in astronomy began as the world got its first look at the full capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope’s first full-colour images and spectroscopic data, which uncovered a spectacular collection of cosmic features that have remained elusive until now, were released. This began with a preview of Webb’s First Deep Field of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as unveiled by US President Joe Biden during a White House event on Monday 11 July. On Tuesday 12 July the complete collection of Webb’s first observations were revealed during a live NASA broadcast. These first observations tell the story of the hidden Universe through every phase of cosmic history and were shared and celebrated worldwide. The now famous images and spectra revealed the capabilities of all four of Webb’s state-of-the-art scientific instruments and confirmed that the observations to come will revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos and our own origins.

Community Events

ESA/Webb coordinated a variety of initiatives to celebrate this release. As was done for the Hubble 30 celebrations, ESA/Webb invited proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to maximise the reach and impact of the ERO products with special events. Following a solicitation call, 43 European events were conducted by more than 60 organisations and institutions. Images from these events can be explored here.

Social Media

Throughout Webb’s commissioning period, ten Q&As were held on ESA/Webb’s Twitter with Webb scientists, to build momentum for the EROs and excitement for Webb science results. This provided a special opportunity for the public to engage directly with the Webb scientists and was very well received. Over 200 million people were reached worldwide on the ESA and ESA Webb social media channels for the various hashtags used. #EuropeMeetsWebb was used throughout the buildup and release of the first images and spectra. #WebbSeesFarther was drawn from the name of the ESA Webb Brochure and was used throughout general Webb social media outreach throughout commissioning and around the big release. #WebbChallenge invited Twitter followers to share what observations they are most looking forward to by using this hashtag and to pass it onto others. Throughout the release celebrations, over 18 million impressions were made on the three ESA/Webb social media channels

Release Products and Global Impact

On 11 and 12 July, Webb’s first images and spectra were revealed and showcased on ESA/Webb’s platforms with 5 announcements, 6 press releases, 19 images, 12 original videos, and 13 additions to the ESA Webb GIPHY page. In the first two weeks following the release, this yielded nearly one million visitors on the ESA/Webb website, over 1 million video views, and over 1 million uses of ESA/Webb’s GIPHY products. Through various media outlets, the images totalled over 100 billion impressions around the world, and more than 55 thousand articles published online. Of these, approximately 30% were published by European media.

Illuminations featuring the images or honouring the release took place at the Empire State Building, NASDAQ and Morgan Stanley screens in Times Square, as well as Picadilly Circus and the Eiffel Tower. The Google Doodle on 12 July shown to users in most of the Americas, Europe, North Africa, India, South Africa and Australia also celebrated the release of the first images.

More To Come

Evidently, the images and spectra were enjoyed by a global audience and the public is eager for more exciting results from Webb. Since the release of Webb’s first images, we’ve shared stunning new images of Jupiter, the Cartwheel Galaxy, the Phantom Galaxy, the Tarantula Nebula, and more, while showcasing Webb’s groundbreaking science including the first imaged exoplanet and the detection of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere.

There are plenty of breathtaking images to come as well as impactful science results that will be sure to excite the scientific community. We invite you to subscribe to receive new ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb press releases direct to your inbox, and to follow along on the ESA/Webb social media channels to engage with the latest updates, images, and science from Webb:

Facebook — for up to date information and images from Webb.
Twitter — for insightful threads and exclusive Q&A’s with scientists and engineers involved in Webb operations and research. You can send your own questions using #HeyWebb.
Instagram — for breathtaking images.
Giphy — for animations that mark the perfect reaction in any social media conversation.
YouTube — for deeper understanding of the space telescope and its mission, captured including the special series #SpaceSparks, as well as special videos of all Webb images.
LinkedIn — for more science- and career-related opportunities in regard to the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble's Biggest Science Release: Earendel

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:00 +0200

- By Bethany Downer -

On 30 March 2022 a special science release was published that made headlines worldwide. Hubble had established an extraordinary new benchmark by detecting the light of a star (nicknamed Earendel) that existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang, at a redshift of 6.2 — the most distant individual star ever seen. These results were published on this date in Nature.

As expected, this release made a significant impact in the media and was a prominent topic of conversation on social media platforms. In fact, this was the largest coverage of any ESA/Hubble release recorded to date! The previous top three highest-reaching releases were as follows:

heic1717 October 2017: Hubble observes source of gravitational waves for the first time
heic 1916 September 2019: Hubble Finds Water Vapour on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet for the First Time
heic2007 April 2020: Hubble Celebrates 30th Anniversary with a Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth

Over 4600 articles were published online to cover this result. 38% of these articles were published by European media in European languages and 26% of these articles mentioned ESA or the European Space Agency in some capacity. Of particular note, 73% of these articles mentioned JWST, Webb, or James Webb. This is of relevance because Earendel will be observed by Webb later this year to confirm that it is indeed a star, and to constrain its age, temperature, mass and radius.

Looking ahead to ESA/Hubble’s activities in the remainder of 2022 and beyond, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescope’s continued success and the use of Hubble data by European institutions and scientists. As Chief Science Communications Officer, my primary goal is to promote the Hubble Space Telescope’s science for the European Space Agency in close collaboration with the ESA Project Scientist for Hubble. ESA/Hubble and ESAHubble.org can help Hubble scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the Earendel release mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!

Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VI

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Chris Evans-

We are about to enter a remarkable period for astronomy. The start of science operations with Webb is fast approaching, while Hubble continues to surprise us with fantastic new discoveries. To bring the community together at this exciting time, we are holding the latest in the successful series of conferences on Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VI in Stockholm on 11–15 July.

Now into its 33rd year since launch, the UV-visible capabilities of Hubble are unrivalled and securing observing time is as competitive as it’s ever been. The conference will feature talks that span the breadth of Hubble science: from studies of the Solar System and exoplanets to observations of the distant, young Universe — and everything in between. It will also be the perfect opportunity to celebrate the spectacular start of the Webb mission. After its stunning launch from the European Spaceport in Kourou, the observatory commissioning has passed successfully through several major milestones, and we are now all looking forward to the exciting first Early Release Observations (EROs).

The goals of the meeting are to showcase some of Hubble’s recent breakthroughs across a broad range of topics, combined with providing the latest news on the Webb mission and its instruments. We are particularly interested in the community’s thoughts on how to best make use of Hubble and Webb together, to identify synergies with other space and ground-based facilities that will help realise the full potential of the missions, and to pose the future scientific questions that will shape our field into the 2030s and beyond.

The final agenda will be announced shortly on the conference webpage and via our social media channels, so please follow us for updates. We hope you’re able to join us either in Stockholm or remotely, and registration will be open until 10 June. Further information on the meeting is available here, and the registration form is here.

Webb Commissioning Update

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:00 +0200

-By Bethany Downer -

Everyone is growing eager for more Webb updates as commissioning continues and we get closer to the Early Release Observations in a few months’ time. Meanwhile, here is a summary of some significant milestones achieved by Webb in the past few weeks.

Verification of the on-orbit functionality of all Webb’s near-infrared instruments started while they were still cooling down to their operating temperature. On 3 March the European team overseeing the NIRSpec instrument announced the successful completion of the initial checks of all internal mechanisms.

On 16 March it was shared that following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, the Webb team expects that the observatory’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve. This was delightful news, following the completion of the stage of alignment known as ‘fine phasing’ on 11 March. Every optical parameter that has been checked and tested has been performing to, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue! With the fine phasing stage of the telescope’s alignment complete, the team had fully aligned Webb’s primary imager, NIRCam, to the observatory’s mirrors.

At this time, the NIRCam telescope alignment evaluation image was shared with the general public and was circulated widely to much excitement online. While the purpose of this image was to focus on the bright star at the centre (2MASS J17554042+6551277) for alignment evaluation, Webb's optics and NIRCam are so sensitive that galaxies and stars in the background were also visible. A NIRCam selfie was also shared and enjoyed by the public; it was created using a specialised pupil imaging lens inside the instrument, as it was designed to take images of the primary mirror segments instead of images of the sky. All of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments were proudly shown collecting light from the same star in unison.

On 1 April Webb's mirror alignment on NIRCam was successfully extended to the rest of the instruments to create the most accurate and focused image possible across Webb's entire field of view. The early secondary mirror coarse corrections were so successful that the fine corrections in the first iteration of Phase Six were unnecessary as a result of detailed planning and effective teamwork.

On 13 April we were delighted to share that Webb's MIRI instrument had successfully reached its operating temperature below 7 kelvins (minus 266 degrees Celsius), known as the ‘pinch point’!

Yesterday, on 28 April, we shared that alignment of the telescope is now complete! After full review, Webb has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its instruments (you can see the engineering images here). The observatory is now ready to move ahead with instrument commissioning.

We are getting closer and closer to science operations with each update! To stay up to date on Webb’s commissioning progress, we invite you to follow and engage with it on our social media pages:

ESA/Webb Early Release Observations Unveiling Solicitation Call

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:33:01 +0200

-Chris Evans, Bethany Downer-

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Observations (ERO) will be among the first spectacular images and spectra taken following the commissioning of the observatory. This release will represent Webb’s debut to the world by showcasing the observatory’s capabilities and is intended to have immediate and dramatic appeal for a broad audience.

This top-secret and highly anticipated collection of images and spectra are intended to be shared widely around the world. To help celebrate this important release, ESA/Webb is inviting proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to maximize the reach and impact of these products with special events. These products will be provided in digital format and we welcome creative and innovative ideas for how these images and spectra can be shared with the greater public across Europe.

In order to submit an application, the applicant (on behalf of the associated group or institution) must agree to the following terms in respect of the James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Observations unveiling:

The event(s) must be free and open to the public
The event(s) would preferably be held on the date of the package release

Participants will be informed of the release date roughly 2 months in advance
If this date is to change, participants will be provided no less than 1 months notice

The digital content should be creatively displayed to reach a wide audience. For example, the products may be featured in museums and science centres, on the side of large buildings or notable public monuments, etc. We invite you to get creative!
Ensure a strong media presence at the event and encourage press coverage, including social media coverage.
Engage with social media by sharing images from your event(s)
Identify any long-term plans for displaying the content (e.g., a permanent exhibit gallery).
The expectation is that the institution organizing the event will bear the costs for the event.
Material will not be released or shared in advance. Event organizers and the public alike will receive access to the content at the same time.

The selected venues will receive the following as part of their involvement:

A large digital package containing all ERO material, including the telescope’s first processed images and spectra
Supporting materials including presentations, talking points, and ERO astronomical target information
Promotion of the event(s) on the ESA/Webb website and social media channels

Applications are welcome from any of the ESA member states.

To submit a proposal, please provide a maximum of 2 pages (PDF format) describing how the above requirements will be fulfilled. The proposal should include a letter from the proposing institution with a commitment to carry out the event in case of selection and to support it financially, at no cost to ESA/Webb. Please submit this document to info@esawebb.org

The deadline to submit a proposal for this promotion has been extended to 8 June 2022. After this, proposals will no longer be accepted. Selected event organisers will be notified by 9 June 2022.

Science Outreach and New Website for ESA/Webb

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 10:00:00 +0100

-By Bethany Downer -

The ESA/Hubble outreach team is excited to share that our team will play a major role in the ESA/Webb science outreach. The brand new ESA/Webb website is also now live at ESAWebb.org.

The ESA/Hubble outreach team is coordinated through the ESA Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. While this Hubble outreach work will continue in 2022, it will also now include the coordination of ESA/Webb scientific outreach, especially as we prepare for science operations.

We are also delighted to announce that the ESA/Webb website, ESAwebb.org, is now live! This website will be showcasing and disseminating updates during the telescope’s commissioning, in coordination with NASA, and will then share various science outreach products once the telescope begins full science operations. This website will be home to the ESA/Webb content that the scientific community and the public have become familiar with, including press releases, imagery, announcements, Space Sparks videos, public engagement initiatives, and more. Of particular note is the first ESA/Webb Space Sparks video, which dives into Webb’s science goals and is now available on the new website.

The ESA/Hubble & ESA/Webb outreach team looks forward to continuing this widespread level of engagement and reach with the European Hubble and Webb communities and the general public throughout 2022. Stay tuned!