The JWST Cycle 1 Telescope Allocation Committee met to review community proposals over three weeks in late February and early March 2021. That simple sentence describes an event that has been anticipated eagerly by the astronomical community for more than two decades—but now the waiting is over.
The installation of an updated Guide Star Catalog, using improved astrometric and photometric information, has improved Hubble's acquisition performance. In March, Hubble experienced observatory and instrument anomalies, but was fine by its 31st anniversary. Reprocessing Hubble data proceeds using Amazon Web Services, and the Cloud-based computing speeds up data processing updates.
Last year, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission advanced to the implementation phase, known as Phase C. This year, flight hardware continues to be built as the mission approaches Critical Design Reviews in the summer and fall of 2021. Primary and secondary mirrors have been refigured, polished, and coated.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) celebrated its third launch anniversary on April 18, 2021. TESS, a NASA Medium-class Explorer Mission, is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the direction of PI George Ricker. TESS data is archived by and served from STScI’s Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
Incessant cycling of material between stars, interstellar gas and dust, and galaxy halos—the baryon cycle—drives galaxy evolution. A critical, yet poorly understood, aspect of this baryon cycle is the depletion of metals from the gas to the dust phase via dust growth in the interstellar medium, and vice versa, the return of heavy elements from the dust to the gas phase via dust destruction.
WFC3 was installed on board HST in May 2009 during SM4. The moment the Space Shuttle Atlantis carried it above the Earth's atmosphere, the CCD detectors began to suffer progressive radiation damage, leading to hot pixels and a degradation in charge-transfer efficiency. As it turns out, the first few electrons in a pixel are particularly vulnerable to charge-transfer loss.
The new fellows will be studying a wide range of astrophysics, from the formation of planetary disks and gas giants to gravitational-wave cosmology. While the total number of new fellows is decided by NASA, there is no set number of Einstein, Hubble, or Sagan Fellows. Twenty-four new fellows were chosen out of a pool of over four hundred applicants.
STScI will have staff members attending the Virtual 238th AAS. An exhibit booth and events highlighting the missions we support on behalf of the science community will be available throughout the week. A variety of science presentations, as well as technical presentations on instruments and missions will be given, along with several webinars and the STScI Town Hall. There will be ample time to confer with experts from Hubble, Webb, Roman, and MAST throughout the meeting and in the exhibit booth.
The STScI community is mourning the loss of our colleague and friend, Rob Hawkins. Rob passed away on November 5, 2020. He was an esteemed leader and principal engineer who dedicated his career to developing software applications used in preparing and planning observations for flight on Hubble, Webb, and Roman. Rob was loved and respected by his family, friends, and colleagues, and his expertise, enthusiasm, and leadership will be missed.
STScI recently completed the proposal review and time allocation process for Hubble Cycle 29. Once again, this was a fully virtual review owing to the coronavirus pandemic. There were no major changes in policy or process.
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