The STScI Newsletter provides articles of interest to the general astronomical community; presents updates on the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, and other initiatives; and announces relevant meetings and workshops.
The items below represent all volumes, issues, and articles within past and current newsletters. You may use the filter bar to search by specific criteria including relevant missions, volumes and the issues within them, and/or keywords.
Submit white papers with compelling scientific ideas for Webb’s Multi-Cycle Treasury programs, which require large allocations of telescope time, by Wednesday, November 4.
In the first half of 2026, STScI staff supported Hubble, Webb, Roman, HWO, and MAST to enable research. We continued to communicate these missions’ scientific discoveries and upcoming impact. Find opportunities to collaborate, request support, and learn how we cover scientific discoveries.
Join upcoming conferences, workshops, symposia, and other astronomy community events, including Surveying the Universe in 4D and the 2026 NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) Symposium, organized by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Links and recordings to recent events are included.
Read an in-depth article about how STScI directors work with the astronomical community to develop Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) programs to push scientific boundaries and enable consequential investigations with both Hubble and Webb.
Hubble Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS) observations remain a key capability for low-resolution spectroscopy of all sources in a field. Slitlessutils version 2.0 is a Python package that replaces aXe for spectral reduction, using a full-forward-modeling approach to simulate WFSS images and extract spectra from Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations.
Read about the community’s overwhelmingly positive response to the call for white papers to support Hubble science in the 2030s, the formation of a new working group, and a new opportunity to submit short science pitches highlighting key Hubble science.
Join STScI at the 248th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Pasadena, California, June 14 to 18, 2026. Throughout the week, members of STScI will be involved in a wide variety of science and technical presentations, press conferences, and more.
Hubble’s Space Telescope Users Committee (STUC) met in April 2026, discussing mission and instrument statuses, updates about the budget, and science-ready products and tools. The STUC will deliver a full report with recommendations based on the information presented.
Read about “Enriching the Universe,” an ESA conference about science with Hubble and Webb held in Vienna, Austria, in April that brought together over 100 participants from 19 countries and more joining online.
Hubble's COS is the most sensitive UV spectrograph ever flown. New strategies are continuously being developed to keep the FUV channel operating into the 2030s and beyond. Recent innovations include lifetime position placement based on updated gain-flagging methodologies and dynamic flight software patching.
Hubble's SI C&DH routes commands and data to the science instruments, with two redundant electronics sides providing hardware backup. A 2021 fault in Side B left Hubble one failure away from ceasing science operations. The B-Side Operations (BSO) solution restores full redundancy.
Hubble's FGSs provide the pointing stability that underpins virtually all its science. Starting in Cycle 34, qualifying ACS/WFC and WFC3 imaging observations will default to single guide star (1GS) guiding. Comprehensive testing confirms no perceptible impact on image quality, while reducing mechanical wear on the FGSs, improving observing success rates, and adding scheduling flexibility — extending FGS lifetime into the 2030s.
Contribute to Hubble’s future scientific portfolio by submitting white papers by May 22. Community white papers will help develop a roadmap for the programmatic, operational, and scientific future of Hubble through the 2030s.
STScI recently completed the proposal review and telescope allocation process for JWST Cycle 5. The worldwide astronomical community engaged in an unprecedented brainstorm, setting a new record for proposals received in response to any Call for Proposals by a major observatory. Here, we summarize the review process and the results and offer pointers for Cycle 6 applicants.
Review the list of recommended JWST Cycle 5 Large Proposals, Treasury Proposals, Archival Research Legacy Proposals, and Pure Parallel Proposals, roughly ordered by scientific topic to learn about the exciting new science that these observations will enable.
Sign up to receive the latest news, images, and discoveries about the universe:
Ask the News Team
Ask the Outreach Office