Announcements 2011

28 March 2011: Access a universe of knowledge about the Universe with three new free iPad apps from ESO’s education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD), available just in time for the iPad 2. Together with the European Space Agency (ESA), ePOD has launched the free ESA/Hubble Top 100 Images app, which brings users the best Hubble pictures from ESA, as NASA’s partner in this international project. Making full use of the iPad 2’s new features, users will be delighted by some of the most dramatic views of the Universe taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as having the chance to learn more about astronomy. Each image is explained in a caption with additional information just a tap away. In the slideshow mode the Top 100 can be contemplated with background music from Zero Project, while each high resolution image makes full use of the bright iPad screen when used as wallpaper. …

9 March 2011: “We have measured the distance to the most remote mature cluster of galaxies ever found,” says the lead author of the study, Raphael Gobat (CEA, Paris). “The surprising thing is that that when we look closely at this galaxy cluster it doesn’t look young — many of the galaxies have settled down and don’t resemble the usual star-forming galaxies seen in the early Universe.” Clusters of galaxies are the largest structures in the Universe that are held together by gravity. Astronomers expect these clusters to grow through time and so massive clusters should be rare in the early Universe. Although very distant clusters have been seen before, they appear to be young clusters in the process of formation, and are not settled, mature systems like this one. The cluster, called CL J1449+0856 [1], was first spotted by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, and its distance measured using the Very Large …

28 February 2011: One of Hubble’s mission objectives at launch was to study black holes, and to test the theory that supermassive black holes lurk in the centres of many galaxies. Two decades later, Hubble has helped solve that mystery — and in the process, asked new questions that have astronomers scratching their heads. The Hubblecast’s Dr J, aka Dr Joe Liske, takes us on a journey through some of Hubble’s work on black holes, and busts a few myths along the way. Credits: Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser Animations: Martin Kornmesser and Luis Calçada Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida Written by: Oli Usher and Sarah Reed Presented by: Joe Liske (Dr J) Narrator: Gaitee Hussain Images: NASA, ESA, ESO, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (David W. Hogg, Michael R. Blanton), Lockheed Martin, Google. Music: movetwo Directed by: Oli Usher Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

28 January 2011: Our very own Hubblecast host, Dr J, aka Dr Joe Liske, will be starring in the new German-language TV series Hubble: Mission Universum starting this Saturday (29 January) at 19.35 CET. The programme will be broadcast on the Austrian satellite/cable channel, Servus TV, which is available in a number of countries, including Germany, Italy and Switzerland. So far six episodes have been confirmed. The show will be celebrating the success of the famous NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which does much more than take pretty pictures: since it was launched into orbit over 20 years ago, Hubble has made almost a million spectacular observations and has revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. Using Hubble’s stunning catalogue of images, Dr J will be exploring some of science’s most intriguing questions. Also keep up to date with the Hubble team by watching the Hubblecast, or follow Dr J’s exploits on Facebook.

27 January 2011: What makes a scientific discovery really important? It’s partly down to how much scientists use the discovery in subsequent work — but it’s also partly down to what inspires their imagination. In this episode, the Hubblecast talks to some leading astronomers about their favourite Hubble discovery. Meanwhile, our presenter, Dr J, struggles to make up his mind. Credits: ESA/Hubble Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser Filming: Herbert Zodet Animations: Martin Kornmesser and Luis Calçada Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida Written by: Oli Usher Interviews by: Oli Usher Presented by: Joe Liske (Dr J) Music: movetwo Directed by: Oli Usher Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

12 January 2011: The final edition of the ST-ECF Newsletter has just been released. The Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF) was a collaborative project between the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory and acted as the scientific and technical coordination centre for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in Europe. Its 26-year-long history is captured in the 48 issues of the Newsletter. The ST-ECF closed its doors on 31 December 2010 (heic1019) In addition to covering the closure of ST-ECF, the final ST-ECF Newsletter features: An account and images of the third Science with the Hubble Space Telescope conference, which was held in Venice, Italy, in October 2010. Details about the public release of nearly 50 000 slitless spectra obtained with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Information about the future of the ST-ECF website, following the closure of the group. The Newsletter is available for download in PDF format from the …