Announcements 2021

20 October 2021: The ESA/Hubble and ESASky team have collaboratively developed an application programming interface that connects the outreach images on the ESA/Hubble website with the ESASky application, which allows users to visualise public astronomical data. When users dive in the Whirlpool Galaxy details, navigate the colors of the Crab Nebula, or surf through the Pillars of Creation, users can now enjoy an interactive tour of all public outreach images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope on ESASky's virtual planetarium. The ESA/Hubble outreach image pages now link to the appropriate locations on the ESASky platform. ESASky is a web-based app, powered by CDS's Aladin, which helps users to interact with outreach astronomical images and datasets taken in different bands of light; including those obtained by ESA missions. As a unique educational tool, users who are interested in the more detailed science behind Hubble’s wide variety of breathtaking images can now also enjoy data-driven …

28 July 2021: ESA/Hubble has developed a special Word Bank, which provides insightful explanations of various astronomical concepts and objects in simple language. The latest project developed by the ESA/Hubble outreach team is the ESA/Hubble Word Bank. This resource was developed to be an informative and educative resource for students, parents, educators, communicators, and the general public alike. Each of the words featured in this unique glossary is accompanied by a simple definition and an explanation of various astronomical concepts and objects in simple and accessible language. These descriptions also provide context and connections to Hubble’s relevance and contributions to the respective areas or objects of research. The Word Bank will continue to be regularly developed and expanded. Please contact us if you have a suggestion for a word or concept you’d like to see included in the Word Bank. Check out all of the ESA/Hubble 31st Anniversary initiatives that have been announced …

14 May 2021: Each year in the month of April, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its anniversary. ESA/Hubble uses this opportunity to develop special initiatives to engage and involve the public in this annual milestone. On 24 April 2021 Hubble celebrated its 31st birthday. ESA/Hubble is inviting our community to join the celebrations by incorporating the beloved telescope into their daily lives. Keeping the current virtual interactions in mind, the ESA/Hubble team has developed a series of fun initiatives, including a “Which Hubble image are you” Instagram filter, a Facebook frame, Zoom backgrounds and smartphone wallpapers. On Instagram, ESA/Hubble has published two Augmented Reality filters. One filter allows you to take a quiz to see which Hubble image you are, while the other one will place you against a starry background and show the Hubble spacecraft orbiting you. The filters can be found by two means on the Instagram app. From your …

14 April 2021: ESA/Hubble has developed a special Chrome browser application to allow users to enjoy the Top 100 Images collection while browsing the internet. It is now available on the Chrome Web Store. Each year in the month of April, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its anniversary. ESA/Hubble uses this opportunity to develop special initiatives to engage and involve the public in this annual milestone. On 24 April 2021 Hubble will be celebrating its 31st birthday. The latest project developed by the ESA/Hubble outreach team is the ESA/Hubble Chrome Application, which is now available on the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, the user will be shown an image from the ESA/Hubble Top 100 Images collection in each new opened tab. This tool was developed with the intention of inviting the general public to enjoy the variety of beautiful images as they go about their daily activities and interests while browsing the …

7 April 2021: ESA/Hubble now has a GIPHY account, complete with looping videos of your favourite Hubble Space Telescope images, videos, and animations. Each year in the month of April, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its anniversary. ESA/Hubble uses this opportunity to develop special initiatives to engage and involve the public in this annual milestone. On 24 April 2021 Hubble will be celebrating its 31st birthday. The latest project developed by the ESA/Hubble outreach team is the ESA/Hubble GIPHY Account. GIPHY is an online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos with no sound, that resemble animated GIF files. Each of the looping videos on the ESA/Hubble GIPHY page points to the original accompanying press release. This collection was developed to be a fun and interactive resource for the general public. Each of the short looping videos can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, …

18 March 2021: Astronomy is predominantly a visual science. However, something important is needed to produce breathtaking color images from the observations made with telescopes such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, or the telescopes of NSF’s NOIRLab at the international Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, or Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The key to unlocking those magnificent vistas is specialized image-processing software. Since its first release in 2004, FITS Liberator has been a popular image-processing tool to help astronomers and the public produce beautiful images from observations recorded in the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) file format commonly used in astronomy. Among image-processing experts, this process is known as “liberation,” where the data is converted to an image format that can be edited in standard graphics software. In the process, users have access to powerful options to manage the high dynamic range intrinsic to astronomical data to create …

3 March 2021: Image webpages on the ESA/Hubble website now include the integration of a new image app utilising the power of the Aladin Interactive Sky Atlas. This app allows users to explore astronomical images or full surveys and to superimpose and compare multi-wavelength entries from Hubble’s astronomical datasets. This new interactive app can be found at the bottom-right of each image webpage, where other image metadata (colours, filters, coordinates, etc.) are provided and overlays the image on top of astronomical surveys to enable personal exploration. The Aladin Interactive Sky Atlas is a project of the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS — Strasbourg astronomical Data Centre) in France. The CDS is dedicated to the collection and worldwide distribution of astronomical data and related information. The centre is host to the SIMBAD database, an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System that is the world reference database for the identification of …

17 February 2021: ESA/Hubble is excited to unveil its new video series entitled Space Sparks. These short videos will highlight and explain news and images from the Hubble Space Telescope, future missions, and general astronomical topics. The new Space Sparks series will be a continuation of the popular Hubblecast series, which published a total of 133 episodes from 2007 to 2020. These freely available videos are an informative and educative resource for students, parents, educators, communicators, and the general public alike! We invite you to watch the first episode of Space Sparks, which highlights the exciting results of a recent ESA/Hubble science release. Like the Hubblecasts, all Space Sparks videos will be offered for download in several formats: standard (.mov, .mpeg, .mp4, .m4v), HD (High Definition) and Full HD. Please read the FAQs for more info on the specs of these formats. For more information on the use and sharing of ESA/Hubble videos, …

1 January 2021: To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble has released a new calendar for 2021. Titled The Latest Spectacular images from the Cosmos, the calendar features a selection of images from photo releases and Pictures of the Week published throughout 2020. The 2021 calendar features Hubble imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It can now be accessed electronically for anyone to print, share and enjoy. The images featured in the calendar are described below: Cover: Hubble’s 30th anniversary image features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020, which together form part of a vast star-forming region approximately 163 000 light-years away. January: Galaxy UGC 2885, which resides 232 million light-years away, may be the largest in the local universe. It is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars. February: The …