Announcements

22 June 2012: The European science archive for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been transferred to ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villanueva de la Cañada near Madrid, Spain. This guarantees a permanent home for Hubble science data following the closure of the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), located at the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory near Munich, Germany. Prof Álvaro Gimenez Cañete, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration said: “This year, European astronomers were awarded a record share of observing time with Hubble. Bringing the Hubble science archive to ESAC is part of ESA’s continuing commitment to European astronomers having access to the world’s most famous orbiting observatory.” In the latest allocation of observing time, in an open competition, European scientists were awarded 26.5% of Hubble orbits. Antonella Nota, ESA Hubble Project Scientist and Mission Manager explains: “ESA’s agreement with NASA guarantees 15% observing time for European …

31 May 2012: In this episode of the Hubblecast, scientists Jay Anderson and Roeland van der Marel show how they have used Hubble observations to predict the future of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. Projecting the motion of Andromeda’s stars over the next 8 billion years, the astronomers now know the path that galaxy is taking through space. And it’s heading straight for us! Computer simulations based on Hubble observations show how the two galaxies will crash together in around 4 billion years’ time.

17 April 2012: To celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope this month, episode 54 of the Hubblecast gives a slideshow of some of the best images from over two decades in orbit, set to specially commissioned music. Please note that although this episode does not have narration, the images are described in subtitles which can be displayed by clicking on the “CC” (closed captioning) button. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles for the Hubblecast in multiple languages, or translate this video on dotSUB. List of images and descriptions: 1990: SaturnAmong the first images to be sent back from Hubble after its launch in April 1990, this image of Saturn is good by the standards of ground-based telescopes, but slightly blurry. This is because of the well-publicised problem with Hubble’s mirror, which did not allow images to be focused properly. 1991: Orion NebulaAlthough not perfectly sharp, this early …

27 March 2012: Over two decades in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has made a huge number of observations. Every week, we publish new ones on the Hubble website. But hidden in Hubble’s huge data archives are some truly breathtaking images that have hardly ever been seen by anyone. In this episode, Dr J, aka Dr Joe Liske, explains what all this data is, what it’s for, and how you can take a look at it yourself. If you’re want to try your hand at looking through the archive for hidden treasures, why not enter our Hidden Treasures competition (competition closes 31 May 2012). Find a great dataset and you could win an iPod Touch, try your hand at processing the image and you could win an iPad. This Hubblecast is the first with specially composed music by Toomas Erm, head of the control engineering department at the European Southern Observatory. Credit ESA/Hubble …

27 March 2012: Over two decades in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has made a huge number of observations. Every week, we publish new images on the ESA/Hubble website. But hidden in Hubble’s huge data archives are still some truly breathtaking images that have never been seen in public. We call them Hubble’s Hidden Treasures — and we’re looking for your help to bring them to light.We’re inviting the public into Hubble’s vast science archive to dig out the best unseen Hubble images. Find a great dataset in the Hubble Legacy Archive, adjust the contrast and colours using the simple online tools and submit to our Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Contest Flickr group, and you could win an iPod Touch in our Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Competition.For an extra challenge, why not try using the same software that the professionals use to turn the Hubble data into breath-taking images? Download the data from the Hubble …

18 January 2012: The New York Times has included the Back in Time app developed by the company Landka among its Top 10 iPad apps in 2011. ESA/Hubble went into partnership with Landka to deliver content for this educational app, which is an animated history e-book that guides the reader through time from the first moments of the Universe’s history until the most recent events. ESA/Hubble contributed images and animations for the first four chapters: The Big Bang, The First Stars, The Milky Way and The Solar System. According to The New York Times: “The coolest history textbook you’ll find on the iPad, Back in Time tells the story of the Universe using a 24-hour clock, where the Big Bang starts the day and humans appear in the final seconds.” An intuitive interface allows the user to scroll quickly through time, entering any major event in the history of our civilisation. Each event …

17 January 2012: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is famous for looking deep into the past of the Universe. But it can also predict the future. This episode of the Hubblecast takes us on a journey five billion years from now, to see the ultimate fate of the Solar System. Using stunning Hubble imagery of the death throes of Sun-like stars, narrator Joe Liske (aka Dr J) shows us what will happen when the Sun runs out of nuclear fuel — and how its wreckage will form the building blocks of new generations of stars. Credit ESA/Hubble Visual design and editing: Martin KornmesserWeb and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Oli UsherNarration: Joe Liske (Dr J)Images: NASA, ESAAnimations: Martin KornmesserMusic: Zero ProjectDirected by: Oli UsherExecutive Producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

15 December 2011: In this episode of the Hubblecast, we take a tour of the compact star-forming region Sh 2-106. Its hourglass shape is caused by the final, violent phases of a star’s formation in the middle of the gaseous nebula. This episode explains some of the science behind Hubble’s observations and brings them to life with detailed 3D computer visualisations. Credit ESA/HubbleVisual design and editing: Martin KornmesserWeb and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Oli Usher and Bárbara FerreiraNarration: Joe Liske (Dr J)Images: NASA, ESAAnimations: Greg Bacon (STScI), Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)Music: Zero ProjectDirected by: Oli UsherExecutive Producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

6 December 2011: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has passed another milestone in its almost 21 years of observations: the publication of the 10 000th refereed scientific paper based on Hubble data. Alvaro Gimenez, Director of Science and Robotic Exploration for the European Space Agency said: “Reaching the milestone of the 10 000th scientific paper reminds us that Hubble is one of the most successful scientific endeavours in history. European scientists have played a big part in this, and have been been intimately involved with Hubble since before the telescope’s launch. Thanks to ESA’s partnership with NASA, Europe’s astronomers have made major contributions to our understanding of the Universe.” European scientists are guaranteed at least 15% of the observing time on Hubble under the terms of ESA’s participation in this international project. Over the years, scientists in over 35 countries have engaged in Hubble research. The United States are responsible for the most …

22 November 2011: From the Distant Past, a laser art installation by German conceptual artist Tim Otto Roth, is now on public display in New York City, USA. Two green scanning lasers project spectra from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope onto the sphere of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. The spectra look like representations of brainwaves or heartbeats on a medical monitor, or the latest stock exchange data as they scroll around the planetarium’s dome. But in fact, they chart the colours and chemical composition of distant galaxies and quasars observed by Hubble. Some of these observations are of galaxies so distant that their light has taken many billions of years to reach us. “So the green laser waves represent some of the oldest colours in the Universe,” Roth explains. From the Distant Past, which was previously exhibited in Venice, Italy and Baltimore, USA, was created by Tim …

2 November 2011: The Hubblecast has been highly commended in the 2011 MEDEA awards. An international panel of educational and media experts judged that the Hubblecast was among the best entries in this European competition that recognises innovation and good practice in the use of media in education. There were 115 entries from 28 countries. Nine finalists were chosen, with a further 13 — including the Hubblecast — highly commended by the jury. The Hubblecast’s Dr J (aka Dr Joe Liske) is no stranger to the MEDEA awards. In 2009, Eyes on the Skies, an hour-long documentary presented by Dr J won the Special Jury Award at the MEDEA Awards. Eyes on the Skies celebrates the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope and the International Year of Astronomy. The MEDEA Awards are supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission through the MEDEA2020 project.

25 October 2011: In episode 49 of the Hubblecast, Dr Joe Liske (aka Dr J) asked viewers to send in their questions about astronomy and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In episode 50, Dr J picks his favourite few questions from the hundreds that were sent in. Credits ESA/HubbleVisual design and editing: Martin KornmesserWeb and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Oli UsherPresented by: Joe Liske (Dr J)Images: NASA, ESAMusic: movetwo and zero-projectDirected by: Oli UsherCinematography: Peter Rixner (www.perix-media-gmbh.de)Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

29 September 2011: A fleet of spacecraft including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has shown unprecedented details in the environs of a supermassive black hole. Observations reveal huge bullets of gas being driven away from the gravitational monster and a corona of very hot gas hovering above the disc of matter that is falling into the black hole.A team led by Jelle Kaastra of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research made use of data from ESA’s XMM-Newton and Integral spacecraft (which study X-rays and gamma rays, respectively), the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (for ultraviolet observations with the COS instrument), NASA’s Chandra (X-ray) and Swift (gamma and X-ray) satellites, and the ground-based telescopes WHT and PAIRITEL. The black hole that the team chose to study lies at the heart of the galaxy Markarian 509, 500 million light-years away. This black hole is colossal, containing 300 million times the mass of the Sun, and is …

23 September 2011: A public art installation featuring Hubble observations of distant galaxies, quasars and stars is going to the USA. From the Distant Past features a laser projecting spectra from distant celestial objects onto the facades of buildings. While the green lines might appear abstract at first, they represent light, split into its constituent colours, that has travelled across space for billions of years from some of the most distant galaxies ever observed. The idea for the installation was generated by German concept artist Tim Otto Roth, in collaboration with astronomer Bob Fosbury, the former head of the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility. Following the amazing success of the first public exhibition of the installation in Venice, in 2010 (ann1011), the Space Telescope Science Institute — the organisation that operates Hubble — has invited Tim to bring his exhibit to the US. Tim Otto Roth says: “I’ve learned that it’s spectra that …

16 September 2011: Using the slitless grism on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 to probe the distant universe, astronomers have found supermassive black holes growing in surprisingly small galaxies. The findings suggest that central black holes formed at an early stage in galaxy evolution. This study is part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.Read the full story from the University of California Santa Cruz here. More Information This research was presented in a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal.The team is composed of Jonathan Trump, Dale Kocevski, Elizabeth McGrath, David Koo, Sandra Faber, Mark Mozena, and Hassen Yesuf (University of California, Santa Cruz); Benjamin Weiner and Stephanie Juneau (Steward Observatory); Claudia Scarlata (University of Minnesota); Eric Bell (University of Michigan); Elise Laird and Cyprian Rangel (Imperial College of London); Renbin Yan (New York University); Hakim Atek …

31 August 2011: In this episode of the Hubblecast, Joe Liske (aka Dr J) looks at newborn stars firing out jets of matter. These jets may cast new light on how the Sun formed 4.5 billion years ago.An international team of scientists led by astronomer Patrick Hartigan of Rice University in Houston, USA, has collected enough high-resolution Hubble images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of these jets. Credit ESA/Hubble & NASA/STScIVisual design and editing: Martin KornmesserWeb and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Oli Usher and Donna Weaver (STScI)Narration: Joe Liske (Dr J)Images: NASA, ESA and P. Hartigan (Rice University)Footage: STScI, Rice UniversityAnimations: Greg Bacon (STScI), Patrick Hartigan (Rice University), Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)Interviews: Mary Estacion (STScI) and Jade Boyd (Rice University)Music: movetwo and John Dyson (from the album Darklight)Directed by: Oli UsherExecutive Producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

30 August 2011: Do you have a burning astronomy question? Now’s the time to ask. To celebrate the 50th episode of ESA’s Hubblecast series, our host, Dr Joe Liske, aka Dr J, will be answering your astronomy questions. Maybe you want to know more about black holes, supernovae, or dark matter? Or perhaps you would like to know where to spot Hubble in the sky?Whatever your question, let us know. Post your question, either as a video or in writing, to our Facebook page at facebook.com/hubbleesa, tweet us @hubble_space or email Dr J at drj@spacetelescope.org. For Facebook, post a question on our wall, or post a link to your question on any video-sharing site. While you’re here, why not like our page too?For Twitter, address your question to our account by directing your question, or a link to your video, to @hubble_space. While you’re here, follow our account to keep up to date …

21 July 2011: In this episode of the Hubblecast, Joe Liske — aka Dr J — takes us on a tour of the outer reaches of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31), the closest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. Hubble’s vision is so sharp that it resolves the grey blob that’s visible to the naked eye into the countless individual stars that make it up, letting us catch a glimpse of the night sky in a galaxy other than our own. Credit ESA/Hubble Visual design and editing: Martin KornmesserWeb and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Oli UsherPresented by: Joe Liske (Dr J)Images: NASA, ESA, T.M. Brown, A. Ferguson, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin), Koen van GorpMusic: movetwoDirected by: Oli UsherCinematography: Peter Rixner (www.perix-media-gmbh.de)Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

12 July 2011: This blue ball is Neptune, the eighth and outermost planet of our Solar System [1]. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope made this picture on 25-26 June 2011 to celebrate the first anniversary of Neptune’s discovery... in Neptune years. Neptune’s leisurely journey around the Sun takes 60 190 Earth days — just under 165 Earth years. This means that 11 July 2011 marked the first time that Neptune has completed a full orbit since its discovery on the night of 23-24 September 1846.Neptune is too distant and too faint to be seen with the naked eye, and so its discovery had to wait for the invention of telescopes.While Galileo Galilei did chance upon it, when it was coincidentally close to the planet Jupiter early in 1613, his notebooks show he misidentified it as a star. After this near miss, Neptune’s true identity would remain hidden for another two centuries.In the summer …

5 July 2011: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made its millionth observation since its launch 21 years ago. The telescope was used to search for the chemical signature of water in the atmosphere of planet HAT-P-7b [1], a gas giant larger than Jupiter which orbits the star HAT-P-7. Alvaro Gimenez, head of science and robotic exploration for the European Space Agency said: “With a million observations and many thousands of scientific papers to its name, Hubble is one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built. As well as changing our view of the Universe with its stunning imagery, Hubble has revolutionised whole areas of science. Thanks to ESA’s participation in the Hubble project, the European scientific community is playing a starring role in these achievements.”Although Hubble is perhaps best known for its detailed images of astronomical objects, the millionth observation was actually made with a spectrograph. Spectroscopy is the technique of …