STScI is operating and takes pride in serving the astronomical community. Read our response to rapidly changing circumstances due to COVID-19 and stay informed about which STScI events have been cancelled or rescheduled.
STScI recently completed the proposal review and time allocation process for Hubble Cycle 28. This year saw a number of changes; details on all of these changes inside. Here we summarize the review process and the results from the Hubble Cycle 28 proposal review.
In 2018, STScI implemented a dual-anonymous proposal system for the HST proposal review process. Under this system, not only are proposers unaware of the identity of the members on the review panel, but the reviewers do not have explicit knowledge of the proposal teams.
Star formation is a complex, multi-scale phenomenon which is central to our understanding of the origin of stars and planetary systems, as well as the structure and evolution of galaxies.
Close your eyes, reach into our galaxy, and pick a random star. Chances are that star will be small, not much bigger than Jupiter, will shine with a dim orange-red color, and be about the temperature of a stove flame—pretty cold as far as stars go.
Last year was another banner year for a new high number of refereed papers using HST data, and passed a bar at more than 1000 science papers published in one year. More than 60% of these papers came entirely or partly from archival data.
The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program fellowship provides for three years of salary and research support at a U.S. host institution of the fellow's choosing.
Galaxies are surrounded by a diffuse reservoir of gas known as their circumgalactic medium. For a galaxy of the mass of the Milky Way, much more gas will reside in its CGM than in its disk (Tumlinson, Peeples, & Werk 2017).
Listed in this article are three examples of the types of engagement OPO is leading for this 30th anniversary year: online engagement with HubbleSite, a series of events across the country, and a special 30th anniversary exhibit.
One of the main goals of extragalactic astronomy is constraining the star formation and assembly histories of galaxies.
Every ten years, the field of astronomy takes a look at the state of the profession and its scientific accomplishments. And just as importantly, it decides how to address the scientific imperatives of the coming decade(s). Astronomy's 2020 decadal survey is upon us and a new generation of engineers, scientists, managers, and advocates will take the lead in establishing a new generation of Great Observatories.
First came "JDox," the JWST Documentation pages, launched in 2016. Now we are pleased to announce "HDox," the HST Documentation pages. HDox began by hosting the HST Call for Proposals in Cycle 26. Since then, it has matured to also include the HST Phase Ⅱ Proposal Instructions, Instrument Handbooks, and Data Handbooks.
Hubble continues to produce record numbers of science results and has a bright future. In that context, and to address the recent behavior of HST gyros, engineers tried out a new method that would overcome the steadily increasing value of rate bias in one of the gyroscopes used for pointing and control, but decided against implementing it at this time. The path is still clear for future implementation of this mode and there are no impacts on science data. Hubble participated in NASA's Senior Review with excellent outcomes from the evaluation.
The primary task for the Observation Planning Branch (OPB) is to implement and assist in the planning of observing programs for HST and JWST. Each of the members of OPB are assigned to this task for either or both missions, in their role as Program Coordinators (PCs).
You should be using the Hubble Source Catalog! The latest release includes the Hubble Catalog of Variables, a major new high-level science product with 84,000 variable star candidates, and proper motions for more than 400,000 stars in the SWEEPS field.
After 29 years on orbit, HST continues to draw a high demand for observing time from astronomers across the world. We received a total of 1,019 proposals by the Phase Ⅰ deadline in April, requesting a total of 24,454 orbits. Of these, 181 proposals totaling 2,702 orbits were approved.