SCHEDULED OUTAGE: This website will be unavailable Sunday, January 31, 2021 from 7:30am—4pm (EST). This affects STScI websites, applications, and external services as well as network disruptions between all internal segment connectivity.
The good news is that Science Operations has been supporting HST at STScI for over 30 years, contributing significantly over the decades to HST's remarkable success. The really good news is that we will be doing similar (but subtly different) support functions for JWST soon after launch.
Current astronomical facilities (including Hubble) allow us to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets. Future facilities, such as JWST, will give us such capabilities for many more planets in even more detail.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has only a short 5–10 years to observe our Universe and assist us as we work to unravel its mysteries. We have a responsibility to extract as much science as possible from every moment of JWST's active mission.
NASA developed the concept of the "Great Observatories"—a multi-wavelength fleet of space telescopes operating simultaneously—throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Two of the four (Hubble and Chandra) continue on today.
HST flux standards use a model atmosphere to establish the relative flux vs. wavelength, which is then normalized to the absolute flux level of the few reliable absolute measures, such as the stars Vega at a visible wavelength and Sirius at infrared wavelengths.
In its 30th year of operation, Hubble Space Telescope science operations have achieved "new normal" levels, both amid remote work under pandemic conditions, as well as dealing with the unpredictable (but not pathological) behavior of Hubble's quirkiest gyroscope.
Our understanding of the Hubble constant has been refined by successive generations, while often teaching us something new about the Universe.
In this article, we present the new calibrations of the WFC3 UVIS and IR detectors and the ACS detectors, available for all MAST calibrated data products starting October 15, 2020.
To leverage Hubble's great success and share discoveries with the general public, STScI has an experienced News Team to showcase research highlights, through the NASA and ESA communications channels.
One of the key questions regarding the cosmic reionization process is: what is the role of dwarf galaxies in cosmic reionization? Until very recently, there was no consensus on whether the main contributors were faint, star-forming dwarf galaxies or active galactic nuclei.
Due to COVID-19, this was the second remote STUC meeting. Presentations were made available ahead of time in order to focus meeting time on questions and discussion.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) will have staff members attending the Virtual 237th AAS, which will be held 11–15 January, 2021. An exhibit booth and several associated events highlighting the missions we support for the science community will be available throughout the week.
Our 2020 STScI Symposium, "The Local Group: Assembly and Evolution," was held on August 31–September 4, 2020. This was the first time an STScI conference was organized in a fully virtual format.
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.