Advancing Tools, Technologies, and Scientific Knowledge

A Universe of Research

Staff publications reflect the depth and breadth of basic and applied research. Samples include:

• Studies of galaxies that existed in the early universe, and atmospheres of planets outside our solar system, that are only possible with the James Webb Space Telescope
• Hubble Space Telescope observations of ultraviolet light from hot gas, massive stars, globular star clusters, star-forming galaxies, and active supermassive black holes
• Simulations to understand galaxy motions, dark matter, supermassive black holes, and small solar system bodies known as centaurs
• New methods for using telescope instruments and processing a range of astronomical data
• Advancement of technologies for next-generation telescopes such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory and the Extremely Large Telescope
• Using neural networks, large language models, and other forms of machine learning to detect changes in objects over time, classify distant galaxies, understand chemical abundances, and synthesize the scientific literature
• Developing tools to handle large datasets from the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory
• Multiwavelength studies that rely on data from both Hubble and Webb to understand star formation, protoplanetary disks, the interstellar medium, nearby and distant galaxies, and gravitational lensing

Astronomical Data Sources

STScI staff continue to conduct their research using data from a wide range of ground- and space-based observatories, both active and retired. In addition to the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, these include:

• Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 
• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) 
• Chandra X-ray Observatory 
• Euclid space telescope
• Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescope (GALEX)
• Gaia (Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics)
• Herschel Space Observatory 
• IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• International Gemini Observatory 
• Kepler/K2 space telescope
• Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO)
• LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) 
• Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory
• Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) 
• Planck space telescope
• Spitzer Space Telescope
• Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
• Very Large Telescope (VLT)
• Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
• XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission Newton)