Announcements

29 October 2010: In early 2009 a team of astronauts visited Hubble and, as part of their mission, installed a new camera: the WFC3. As well as providing scientists with higher resolution observations than ever before, the pictures provided by WFC3 are among Hubble’s prettiest yet. This episode of the Hubblecast looks at the science behind this instrument, including how it is helping Hubble to see the invisible, look far back in time and spot objects further away from us than those seen by any other telescope in history.

4 October 2010: Astronomers from around the world are gathering for the third Science with the Hubble Space Telescope conference (HST3), which takes place in Venice from 11–14 October. They will be celebrating 20 years of cutting-edge science with the world’s most famous orbiting observatory, and looking forward to new research opportunities in the years to come. The previous Science with the Hubble Space Telescope conference took place in Paris in 1995. Since then, scientists have made numerous breakthroughs in astronomy and astrophysics with the telescope, including imaging the most distant galaxies in the Universe and probing the atmospheres of exoplanets for the first time. Talks at the conference will include both retrospectives on Hubble’s rich history and discussions of the research to be pursued in the years ahead. Thanks to the new instruments installed during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, Hubble’s ability to see and study the cosmos is way beyond what …

1 October 2010: Today, the third — and best — version of the popular ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator image-processing software has been released with several significant improvements. As with the previous versions of the FITS Liberator, the new version makes another leap towards making the creation of colour images from raw astronomical observations easier and faster. The FITS Liberator continues to support the FITS and PDS formats, preferred by astronomers and planetary scientists respectively, which enables data to be processed from a wide range of telescopes and planetary probes, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESO’s Very Large Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, ESA’s XMM–Newton Telescope and Cassini–Huygens or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The new FITS Liberator incorporates a faster and more streamlined workflow. The CPU-intensive calculations have been optimised, thanks to significantly improved memory management, and this allows for time savings of up to 35%. For large images the savings in efficiency are even …

27 September 2010: Today’s telescopes study the sky across the electromagnetic spectrum. Each part of the spectrum tells us different things about the Universe, giving us more pieces of the cosmic jigsaw puzzle. The most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space have joined forces over the last decade in a unique observing campaign, known as the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or GOODS, which reaches across the spectrum and deep back into cosmic time. In a very special “multicast” video podcast, the Hubblecast has joined forces with the ESOcast, the Spitzer Space Telescope’s “Hidden Universe”, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s “Beautiful Universe” podcasts. Here we explore the collaboration of these great observatories on the GOODS project.

14 September 2010: The European Space Agency, NASA and the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti present The Hubble Space Telescope: Twenty Years at the Frontier of Science, a month-long exhibition of photos and artefacts from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, in their beautiful and historic Palazzo Loredan, will play host to the event, which runs from 16 September to 15 October and coincides with a major international scientific conference on Hubble in October. The exhibition features many of the breathtaking photos that have made Hubble famous over the past 20 years, alongside detailed explanations. Also featured are exhibits associated with the five space shuttle missions that visited Hubble to install upgrades and make repairs between 1993 and 2009. This part of the exhibition includes tools and equipment used by the astronauts as they carried out their difficult work hundreds of kilometres from Earth. …

1 September 2010: After 20 years of pointing its cameras into the depths of space, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is quite a star here on Earth too. Whether it is on a biceps tattoo or a piece of toast, in a fashion show, at a rock concert, or on the show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Hubble has become part of our lives through popular culture. This summer, ESA/Hubble ran a competition to find the weirdest, funniest and most inspiring examples of Hubble as a cultural icon. From album covers to a brilliant life-size wooden model made by Australian artist Peter Hennessey, the entries showed how science and creativity come together. Some of the most eye-catching entries are featured in a new episode of the Hubblecast, which looks at the cosmic inspiration behind them. The video is available in a range of formats including high definition at: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast38a/ The winners of the …

4 August 2010: Although the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is mostly famous for its spectacular pictures this is only a small part of its capability. It is also possible to use a prism to spread out the light from all the stars and remote galaxies seen in a Hubble image into their component colours to create what are called slitless spectra. These can be used by astronomers to learn far more about the nature of astronomical objects — their distance, composition and likely nature. The Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), based at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, has processed a huge collection of slitless spectra from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys into a form ready for astronomers to use. The resultant set of more than 47 000 individual spectra is the largest of its kind ever created and will be a rich resource for future work. This spectral collection is a major contribution …

4 August 2010: A European-led team has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to make a startling discovery about Saturn, the Solar System’s second largest planet [1]. The astronomers discovered that Saturn’s aurora, an ethereal ultraviolet glow that illuminates its upper atmosphere near the poles, dances in time to the beat of a mysterious radio emission. For years, scientists thought that the Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR), which shines from Saturn’s polar regions, pulsed in time with the rotation of the planet. However, more recent studies have shown that the rate speeds up and slows down with time. Since planets spin at a constant rate, Saturn’s rotation cannot explain an irregular pulsing of the SKR. The team, led by the University of Leicester’s Jonathan Nichols, has discovered that the planet’s aurora varies in time with the SKR, pointing to a common explanation for both. Nichols says: “This is an important discovery for two reasons. …

30 June 2010: We are still celebrating Hubble’s 20th anniversary! Are you? Show us what traces of Hubble’s influence you have found in pop culture. For the past 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has brought you the most breathtaking images of the Universe. Now it’s your turn to look for astonishing examples of Hubble pictures, or pictures of Hubble, used in unexpected places. ESA/Hubble challenges you to discover examples of Hubble in pop culture, take a picture of them and submit them together with a caption to the Hubble Pop Culture Competition. Have you seen a CD cover that features a beautiful Hubble image? A Hubble-inspired tattoo? Let us know!  We will award prizes for the most artistic, the weirdest, the funniest, the largest and the smallest entries, including: iPod Touches, books, DVDs, posters and more. Keep uploading pictures until 31 July 2010.  For complete rules and regulations, see the official webpage.

22 June 2010: This Hubblecast features a spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image — one of the largest ever released of a star-forming region. It highlights N11, part of a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star formation is one of the most active in the nearby Universe.

23 April 2010: In honour of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 20th anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) is proud to present the ESA “Hubble Pop Culture” competition — a free competition that calls for everyone who loves Hubble to find examples of it in popular culture. Have you seen a Hubble image on the cover of a CD? Has Hubble been used as inspiration for art? Let us know and you could win great prizes! When you find an interesting example of Hubble within popular culture, take a picture, write a quick caption and submit it to us. We are looking for examples that fit in the following five categories: 1. Most Artistic 2. Weirdest 3. Funniest 4. Largest 5. Smallest Complete rules and regulations can be found here:  http://www.spacetelescope.org/hubblepopculture  The entries should be submitted on or before 31 July 2010. Links Competition web page: http://www.spacetelescope.org/hubblepopculture Contact Colleen Sharkey ESO, Garching, Germany …

23 April 2010: In honour of Hubble’s 20th anniversary, the European online home for Hubble is being revamped. The streamlined and contemporary new look will highlight amazing Hubble images and videos while still maintaining the convenient and easy-to-use features of the previous site. The new site will also include brand-new elements including Hubble pictures of the week. Check out the cool new look, debuting on 23 April: http://www.spacetelescope.org

21 April 2010: The European Space Agency (ESA) in conjunction with American partners NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) will release a gorgeous new Hubble image that celebrates the venerable observatory’s 20th year in orbit. The Hubble anniversary images and videos will be posted on the revamped http://www.spacetelescope.org web site, the European home for Hubble science, at 10:00 CEST on Friday, 23 April 2010. April 24 2010 will mark the 20th anniversary of launch of the iconic telescope. A project that took decades to get to the launch pad, Hubble is responsible for many of the most recent fundamental cosmic discoveries, including: the deepest views of our Universe, a more accurate estimation of the age of the Universe, the characterisation of black holes in the cores of galaxies and exoplanets orbiting stars outside of our Solar System. ESA contributes a 15 percent share to Hubble's development and in return European astronomers …

15 April 2010: Gearing up for the 20th anniversary of the legendary space observatory, Dr. J takes a look at the story of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Born of an ambitious idea, it took decades for Hubble to become a reality. The project was complex and often faced huge setbacks but, ultimately, the powerful telescope took to the skies aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on 24 April 1990. Look back through the decades with this – the first of two special Hubble 20th anniversary Hubblecasts. And stay tuned for the next anniversary Hubblecast.

5 March 2010: This April will mark 20 years in orbit for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope! In honour of this incredible milestone, ESA, along with American partners NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) will offer a limited number of high-quality large Hubble prints to selected European science centres and planetariums. Click on the link below for more information and to sign up for this exciting opportunity.

9 December 2009: The Eyes on the Skies project initiated as part of International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) celebration now entering its final weeks has won an international accolade. After originally being selected as one of eight finalists from a field of over 254 entries from 39 countries, the Eyes on the Skies movie and book went on to receive the Special Jury Award for its high production value at the MEDEA 2009 Awards held in Berlin, Germany on 4 December. The annual MEDEA awards recognize excellence in media-rich educational materials. The competition's judges said that Eyes on the Skies is "a very well designed and attractive presentation of quite a challenging subject" and is "authoritative without being confusing." In this way, the project serves as "an excellent example of integrated educational narrative and complementary use of various media," the judges also said, owing in part to its "superb script." The Eyes …

2 December 2009: An elusive, very hot star at the centre of one of the most well-known and spectacular planetary nebulae has been directly detected. Using the brand-new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in six narrow band filters, researchers from the European Southern Observatory, the University of Manchester and CSIC (Granada, Spain) have located and partially characterized the dying star. Astronomers estimate that the star, which began its life as few times more massive then the Sun, is now is a little over half the mass of the Sun. After it expelled its outer envelope some 2200 years ago, the star now has an extremely high temperature, anywhere from 200 000 K to 400 000 K — one of the hottest ever detected. It is fading very rapidly and will cool down very slowly to a small and cold white dwarf. The Bug Nebula (also known as the Butterfly Nebula), or NGC 6302, …

10 November 2009: A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy provided by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and its companion Great Observatories (the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory) is being unveiled on 10 Nov 2009. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609. Although best known for its visible-light images, Hubble also observes over a limited range of infrared light and this sweeping panorama is the sharpest infrared picture ever made of the galactic centre region. The composite image – made up of an image from each telescope – features the spectacle of stellar evolution: from vibrant regions of star birth, to young hot stars, to old cool stars, to seething remnants of stellar death called black holes. This activity occurs against a fiery backdrop in the crowded, hostile environment of the galaxy's core, the …

30 October 2009: The release of version 2 of the popular ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator image processing software has meant that it is even easier and faster to create colour images using raw observations from a range of telescopes, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, ESO’s Very Large Telescope and ESA’s XMM-Newton Telescope. Version 1 of the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator was completed in July 2004 by imaging scientists at the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory and NASA. FITS stands for Flexible Image Transport System. This single file format archives nearly all images of stars, nebulae and galaxies produced by major telescopes around the world. Before July 2004 this file format was primarily accessible to scientists working with highly specialised image processing tools. More than 60,000 laypeople, educators and amateur astronomers have started using the Liberator since the release of v.1 in July 2004. The FITS Liberator …

13 October 2009: A bright and bizarre galaxy called NGC 2623 is the focus of this Hubblecast. The single galaxy is the product of the merger of two distinct galaxies. The union has spawned new star formation and activated one of the supermassive black holes found at the centres of the two original galaxies, causing it to emit light across a wide spectrum. The galaxy is part of the GOALS (The Great Observatory All-sky LIRG) Survey that combines the powers of four space telescopes to study over 200 of the most luminous infrared galaxies in the local Universe. ESA/HubbleVisual design & Editing: Martin KornmesserAnimations: Martin Kornmesser & Patrik Jonsson, Greg Novak & Joel Primack, UC Santa CruzWeb Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi ShidaWritten by: Colleen SharkeyNarration: Dr. JMusic: movetwo & John Dyson from the CD DarklightStill images: XMM-Newton: ESA/Chandra: NASA/Galex: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech Directed by: Colleen SharkeyExecutive director: Lars Lindberg …

9 September 2009: After more than three months of calibration and testing, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is reopening its rejuvenated eyes to begin probing the Universe once again. Dr. J reveals the stunning new images and the fascinating science behind them.

22 June 2009: The fifth and final mission to the iconic Hubble Space Telescope was a long time coming. After a delay in the fall of 2008, spring brought new hope and, on 11 May, the seven Space Shuttle crew members headed for the mission of a lifetime.

11 May 2009: In a bright, loud and visibly perfect launch, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:01 p.m. EDT (20:01 CEST). The seven astronauts of STS-125 are headed for their rendezvous with Hubble Space Telescope. Over an 11-day mission, veteran astronauts Scott Altman, Gregory C. Johnson, John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino and rookies Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014. Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready.

11 May 2009: The Hubble community bids farewell to the soon-to-be decommissioned Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. In tribute to Hubble's longest running optical camera, a planetary nebula has been imaged as WFPC2's final "pretty picture". This planetary nebula is known as Kohoutek 4-55 (or K 4-55). It is one of a series of planetary nebulae that were named after their discoverer, Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. A planetary nebula is formed from material in the outer layers of a red giant star that were expelled into interstellar space when the star was in the late stages of its life. Ultraviolet radiation emitted from the remaining hot core of the star ionises the ejected gas shells, causing them to glow. In the specific case of K 4-55, a bright inner ring is surrounded an asymmetric, fainter layer. The entire system is then surrounded by a faint red halo …

9 April 2009: For nineteen years, NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy but it has also helped scientists learn more about our own Solar System. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble has studied every planet in our Solar System except Mercury where light from the Sun would damage its instruments. Hubble has captured the impact of a comet on Jupiter, immense storms on Neptune and even tiny dwarf planets at the edge of our Solar System. The veteran telescope keeps a watchful eye on our solar backyard.

3 April 2009: In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photographed the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute's "You Decide" competition. The image of the winner, a group of interacting galaxies called Arp 274, was revealed during ESO's "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" webcast. The striking object received 67,021 votes out of the nearly 140,000 votes cast for the six candidate targets. On 1-2 April Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 captured Arp 274 (also known as NGC 5679). Arp 274 is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation. Two of the three galaxies are forming new stars at a high rate. This …

10 March 2009: NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope partnered with ESO's VLT to obtain exceptional 3D views of distant galaxies by probing the motions of gas in tiny objects, seen when the Universe was half its current age. By looking at this unique "history book" of our Universe, at an epoch when the Sun and the Earth did not yet exist, scientists hope to solve the puzzle of how galaxies formed in the remote past. For decades, distant galaxies that emitted their light six billion years ago were no more than small specks of light on the sky. With the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s, astronomers were able to scrutinise the structure of distant galaxies in some detail for the first time. Under the superb skies of Paranal, the VLT's FLAMES/GIRAFFE spectrograph (eso0219) — which obtains simultaneous spectra from small areas of extended objects — can now also resolve …

4 March 2009: "Eyes on the Skies" and "Hidden Universe", two books produced in a unique collaboration between the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the European Southern Observatory, the European Space Agency and the international publisher Wiley-VCH, have just been announced as 2008 bestsellers. The publisher's second ranking bestseller is "Eyes on the Skies", which tells the fascinating story of the telescope through words and a wealth of stunning photographs and illustrations (plus a 60-minute documentary DVD). In 8th place, "Hidden Universe" achieves the tricky task of communicating unseen phenomena comprehensively and without jargon, beginning with a look at the way we observe the Universe using our eyes and telescopes and then travelling across the five wavelength bands. Both books are released at the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

16 January 2009: The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside over 10 000 light-years away, in the southern constellation Pyxis (the Compass). NGC 2818 is one of very few planetary nebulae in our galaxy located within an open cluster. Open clusters, in general, are loosely bound and they disperse over hundreds of millions of years. Stars that form planetary nebulae typically live for billions of years. Hence, it is rare that an open cluster survives long enough for one of its members to form a planetary nebula. This open cluster is particularly ancient, estimated to be nearly one billion years old. The spectacular structure of NGC 2818 (also known as PLN 261+8.1) contains the outer layers of a sun-like star that were sent off into interstellar space during the star' s final stages of life. These glowing gaseous …

15 December 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the seventh chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie explores the many facets of the telescope — the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. The telescope has been mankind's window on the Universe for four hundred years. It has provided scientists with unprecedented views of planets, stars and galaxies from our cosmic doorstep to the very depths of space and time. But despite their incredible performance, even the newest and most powerful telescopes leave room for improvement. Astronomers always want to venture beyond their current horizons. In this final chapter we take a look at things to come — the revolutionary ground-based telescopes and space observatories of …

11 December 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the sixth chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie explores the many facets of the telescope — the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. There's no better place for a telescope than space itself. Above the Earth's atmosphere observations are no longer hampered by air turbulence, so telescopic images of distant stars and galaxies are razor-sharp. Unlike a ground-based telescope, an instrument in Earth orbit can operate twenty-four hours a day and reach every part of the sky. Observing from space also makes it possible to study types of radiation that are otherwise absorbed by the atmosphere. Little wonder that the Hubble Space Telescope has made so …

5 December 2008: NASA officials announced Thursday that Shuttle mission STS-125 to repair the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is now scheduled for launch on 12 May 2009.The delay to the mission, from the original launch date in September, was due to the failure of a data-handling unit on the telescope. Despite a successful switchover to a back-up unit, officials decided that a replacement unit would need to form part of the servicing mission. Since then engineers have conducted a series of tests on a spare unit to ensure it is qualified for spaceflight. These tests are on schedule and the plan is to ship the replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling System for integration on the Shuttle payload in spring 2009.Servicing Mission 4 is the last repair mission to Hubble, and will see the installation of two new instruments, WFC3 and COS, the repair of two others, ACS and STIS, along with …

25 November 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the fifth chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie explores the many facets of the telescope – the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. The Universe is a black void, with a scattering of stars, nebulae and galaxies – or so it appears to observers using visible light. But if we include other forms of radiation invisible to us, the picture changes completely: clouds of interstellar hydrogen gas, emitting radio waves; stellar nurseries, glowing in the infrared; explosive outbursts of gamma rays and the all-sky background hiss of the Big Bang, diluted by almost fourteen billion years of cosmic expansion. So how do astronomers learn about the …

3 November 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the fourth chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie will be released during the autumn and winter of 2008 (further information is available via the links below) and will explore the many facets of the telescope – the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. Observing the Universe through the eyepiece of a telescope is one thing, but recording the observations for posterity is something quite different. Originally astronomers used pen and paper to draw what they saw, but the human eye is a dreadful detector and our brain can play tricks on us. Astrophotography, first explored in the mid-nineteenth century, has proved to be a powerful, objective …

31 October 2008: NASA officials announced 30 October 2008 that the planned Hubble Servicing Mission 4, originally scheduled for late September, will at the earliest take place in May 2009. The decison comes after engineers completed an initial assessement of the work required to bring the replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling system into flight readiness. The Hubble flight spare has been at Goddard since it was originally delivered as a back-up system in 1991. The unit currently is undergoing testing and examination to identify and correct any problems. That work will continue until mid-December. The unit will then undergo environmental assessments that include electro-magnetic interference checks, vibration tests, and extended time in a thermal vacuum chamber. Environmental testing is anticipated to run from mid-December to early March 2009. Final testing will be conducted on the unit, and delivery to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is expected in early April. "The …

27 October 2008: Science operations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope resumed over the weekend, four weeks after a problem with the science data formatter took the spacecraft into safe mode. Reactivation of the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 took place at around 15:00 CEST on 25 October 2008 as the science computer issued commands to finally bring the instrument back online. The first science data will serve to check and calibrate the instrument, before scheduled observations resume later in the week. In addition, scientists are hopeful of releasing an image towards the end of the week. Image credit: NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

24 October 2008: Following a week of thorough investigations as a result of two anomalies observed last week, NASA, on 23 October 2008, approved the resumption of activities to bring the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope back to science operational status. The first anomaly observed was in the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The problem arose when a low voltage power supply failed to reach the minimum voltage prior to a system check. Due to changes in the configuration of ACS in anticipation of the planned servicing mission and a reset of the system clock, there was insufficient time allowed between the power-up and the health check. Timing analysis confirmed that the minimum 8 volts was attained by the LVPS shortly after the check. Accordingly, the software has been changed for all future ACS operations. The ACS solar blind channel should be operational by the middle of next week. The second anomaly caused the …

22 October 2008: Engineers at NASA continue to investigate the two anomalies which occurred during the reactivation of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope last week. Currently the focus is on assessing the ongoing risks for the activities needed to bring restore Hubble to full science capability prior to Servicing Mission 4. In the last few days, engineers reviewed the data from both anomalies. On the Solar Blind Channel of the ACS the low voltage power supply reached its nominal 8 volt output just moments after the internal check. Engineers now need to determine if they can restart the power supply and whether there is any impact on the planned repair of ACS. The cause of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH-B;) shutdown has been narrowed to an unspecified electrical event that triggered a reset of both Control Unit/Science Data Formatter-B and the NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) Central Processing Module-B …

18 October 2008: The process of restoring the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to operational status was temporarily put on hold due to a couple of anomalies observed on the spacecraft during reconfiguration. The first event, occurring at ~19:40 CEST, 16 October, led to a suspension in operations of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) when a power source in the Solar Blind Camera failed to activate. The camera software was undertaking a series of checks and determined that a low voltage power source was not producing the minimum 8 volts required and automatically put the instrument into safe mode. While the cause is known it is unclear at the moment what the work around is. At ~23:14 CEST, 16 October, an as yet unknown problem affecting the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH;) system caused the main science computer to stop issuing a keep-alive signal. The main computer and the science …

17 October 2008: Engineers at ground control spent yesterday, 16 October, activating in a planned sequence the instruments onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The three primary instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), were brought out of safe mode and the interface to the new B-channel established. At around 18:00 CEST commands were issued to the spacecraft to use the new B-channel to activate the instruments and begin internal exposures and calibrations. The retrieval and review of this data should be completed by 18:00 CEST on 17 October and will involve comparing baseline exposures from the old and new channels. At around the same time a full schedule of science operations should resume. Image credit: NASA.

16 October 2008: The process of restoring the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to full science operations is proceeding smoothly according to ground control teams. By about 15:30 CEST on 15 October, the control commands had successfully switched operations over to run on the back-up B-channel; and a few hours later Hubble was brought out of safe mode as the main computer resumed control of the spacecraft. Engineers on the ground were hoping to receive updated telemetry at around midnight CEST to confirm that the instruments are working with the back-up channel and science data is transmitted to ground. Further commands and procedures to be executed today (16 October) will continue to bring different components online and resume a number of key functions, such as communications satellite tracking and checking out the instruments. These last steps in the process are well rehearsed and have been accomplished several times throughout the lifetime of Hubble. If …

15 October 2008: At a teleconference on 14 October 2008, NASA officials revealed the timeline for restoring the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to operational status following its entry into safe mode three weeks ago. Bringing Hubble back into operation will require the so-called Control Unit/Science Data Formatter to be switched over from its current failed channel-A to the back-up channel-B. To do this requires the main spacecraft to be placed into safe mode, the channel-B electronics to be brought online and then several supporting components to be switched to operate on the new channel. The science instruments themselves and the main spacecraft control systems are unaffected by this change. To achieve the switch-over a series of commands will be transmitted to the spacecraft. Although many elements of the command chain have been carried out previously (Hubble has entered safe mode on six occasions throughout its life) this is the first time this particular …

1 October 2008: At approximately 02:00 (CEST) on Sunday September 28, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope automatically entered safe mode when errors were detected in the Control Unit/Science Data Formatter-Side A. This component is essential for the storage and transmission of data from the telescope's science instruments back to Earth. Ground control attempts to reset the device and obtain a download of the payload computer's memory were unsuccessful. NASA specialists are currently investigating the problem and are in the process of planning a switch-over to the redundant Side B. This is a complex task and requires that five other modules are also switched to communicating via the B channel. Many of these modules were last activated 20 years ago during ground testing prior to launch. If this transition is successfully completed the telescope could rapidly be returned to science operations. NASA is now also evaluating the possibility of flying a back-up replacement system …

25 September 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the third chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's official movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie will be released during the autumn and winter of 2008 (further information is available via the links below) and will explore the many facets of the telescope – the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. Progress in telescopic astronomy would have come to a grinding halt in the second half of the twentieth century if it weren't for the digital revolution. Powerful computers have enabled a wealth of new technologies that have resulted in the construction of giant telescopes, perched on high mountaintops with monolithic or segmented mirrors as large as swimming pools. Astronomers have even devised …

16 September 2008: Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a mystery object in the constellation of Böotes. Despite detailed analysis of the light emitted by the object, astronomers are puzzled by the nature of and distance to the object known as SCP 06F6. All we know comes from a series of observations made over the course of a few months. The object was first detected on 21 February 2006 while scientists were using Hubble to survey very distant galaxy clusters for supernovae. The object continued to brighten by a factor of over 100 during the course of the next three months, without exceeding magnitude 21, and then faded away in an identical manner. This in itself is highly unusual – most light curves from transient events are not symmetrical, but have a rapid rise and a slow decay. The second part to this mystery is the spectrum. Follow-up observations with …

3 September 2008: In this new Hubblecast Special episode, Dr. J guides us through the second chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's official movie celebrating the telescope's 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie will be released during the autumn and winter of 2008 (further information is available via the links below) and will explore the many facets of the telescope – the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. In their quest for ever-fainter objects and finer detail, astronomers have always demanded bigger telescopes. Scientific vision, technical nerve and personal perseverance led to the giant observatories of the early 20th century. Located on remote peaks and protected beneath majestic domes, these awe-inspiring instruments have revealed an expanding and evolving Universe, populated by a stunning variety of galaxies and nuclear powered stars …

25 July 2008: In this new Hubblecast episode, Dr. J guides us through the first chapter of Eyes on the Skies, the International Astronomical Union's official movie celebrating the telescope on its 400th anniversary in 2009. The Eyes on the Skies movie will be released during the autumn/winter 2008 (further information is available via the links below) and will explore the many facets of the telescope ? the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and their failures. For thousands of years, astronomers had to rely on their eyes to unravel the mysteries of the Universe. Upon its invention, the telescope revealed an incredible assortment of astronomical riches, and led to a dramatic increase in available knowledge regarding the incredible Universe surrounding us. In this Hubblecast titled New views of the skies, we will travel back in time to see just how …

1 July 2008: A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship A jet from a black hole? Actually this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. On or around 1 May 1006 A.D., observers from Africa to Europe to the Far East witnessed and recorded the arrival of light from what is now called SN 1006, a tremendous supernova explosion caused by the final death throes of a white dwarf star nearly 7,000 light-years away. The supernova was probably the brightest star ever seen by humans, and surpassed Venus as the brightest object in the night time sky, only to be surpassed by the Moon. It was visible even during the day for weeks, and remained visible to the naked eye for at …

26 May 2008: The conference Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007 was held in Athens, Greece, from 8 to 11 October 2007. It aimed to bring together the producers of astronomical information (research scientists), public information officers (connected with large observatories and space missions), and mediators (science reporters and writers, staff members from museums, planetariums). The key topics of the meeting were: The International Year Astronomy 2009 (main theme) Case studies Communicating in the Web 2.0 / YouTube / MySpace / vodcasting mediascape Audiovisual & multimedia communication incl. tools and techniques Social impact and evaluation of astronomy communication Communication catering to special needs The proceedings of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007 meeting is available online (check the links below).

26 May 2008: In this edition the contributions cover the full spectrum of astronomy communication from forefront technology to the fine art of communicating controversy. Three of the topics discussed in this issue deal with communicating contentious topics: the cases of the meteorite ALH 84001, the TMR-C1 "protoplanet" and the UK spacecraft Beagle 2 featured prominently in the media coverage of astronomy in 1996, 1998 and 2003 respectively. Two great articles examine the backstage drama and the media coverage of these remarkable stories thoroughly. There are many lessons to be learnt from these case studies. On the CAPj's website, www.capjournal.org, you will find the current issue in PDF format, a job bank, submission guidelines and back issues.

25 March 2008: Today, an updated version of the popular software has been released with, among other features, native support for Intel-based Macs. Another key update is a much improved support for embedding of descriptive information, so-called metadata, directly within the final image. Based on a updated version 1.1 standard for Astronomy Visualization Metadata, this information is stored in the standard manner like that used by digital cameras to record exposure information. The FITS Liberator is freely available for download from: http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/download_v22.html Version 2.2 of The ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator has been improved in several areas, some of which are: Universal Binary for Mac allows native CS3 operation on Intel-based systems Flip image checkbox allows image orientation to be selected on import. Root functions (x1/2, x1/3, x1/4, x1/5) now operate antisymmetrically about x=0. Version 1.1 of the Astronomy Visualization Metadata (AVM) standard is now fully supported. For more information see http://www.virtualastronomy.org The import …

7 March 2008: Less than one year after its launch, the Hubblecast HD video podcast (vodcast) series has become a tremendous success. It has just been awarded a position among the best new 25 video podcasts in 2007 by the Apple iTunes store. Hubblecast is the name for a series of free video podcasts that presents the latest news and beautiful images related with the science produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. Its target group is laypeople interested in astronomy and the amazing images from outer space. The "HD" stands for "High Definition", and is the standard format that can be watched on online movie players such as the AppleTV. However, Hubblecast HD can also be watched on any computer screen. Two other Hubblecast channels are available: "Hubblecast" which is low resolution and Hubblecast Full HD, using the 1080p format (1920 x 1080 pixels). It is easy to find Hubblecast HD in iTunes: …

25 February 2008: ESA/Hubble has started a collaboration with the University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute on the NBI Cast. The first collaboration has resulted in the episode "Our Cosmic Roots" about the most distant galaxies observed. NBI Cast is currently only available in Danish, but will soon be accessible in English also. ScienceXplorer HD / EnglishXplore the world of physics and astronomy by joining the researchers in their quest to discover the mysterious Universe, missions to Mars, in the arctic cold in Greenland, and in the world's largest particle accelerator in CERN. Produced by the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

21 February 2008: In this issue we marvel at the breathtaking images taken by astrophotographers from The "World at Night project", get insider tips from authors of two popular astronomy vodcasts, learn how to navigate the labyrinth of European Commission grants for education/outreach and much more. CAPjournal is a newcomer to the field, but we are very happy with the community feedback, which gives us an added incentive to continue. Between editions you can stay in touch through our website, www.capjournal.org, discussions on the papers, a job bank, back issues and the current issue of CAPjournal. Check out the full articles on: http://www.capjournal.org/issues/02/index.php

6 February 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of the galaxy NGC 1132 which is, most likely, a cosmic fossil – the aftermath of an enormous multi-galactic pile-up, where the carnage of collision after collision has built up a brilliant but fuzzy giant elliptical galaxy far outshining typical galaxies. In this Hubblecast, check why this elliptical galaxy has been intriguing the scientists and how it can help us understand more about the inner workings of the Universe.

17 December 2007: A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new data from NASA/ESA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake. Known as 3C 321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centres, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black hole. The smaller galaxy apparently has swung into the path of this jet. This "death star galaxy" was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico (USA), and the …

4 December 2007: These images show young and old white dwarf stars – the burned-out relics of normal stars – in the ancient globular star cluster NGC 6397. The image at left, taken by a ground-based telescope, shows the dense swarm of hundreds of thousands of stars that make up the globular cluster. The white box outlines the location of the observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image at top right, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveals young white dwarfs less than 800 million years old and older white dwarfs between 1.4 and 3.5 billion years old. The photo shows 12 of the 84 white dwarfs in the Hubble study. The blue squares pinpoint the young white dwarfs; the red circles outline the older white dwarfs. The Hubble researchers distinguished the younger from the older white dwarfs based on their colour and brightness. The younger white dwarfs are …

27 November 2007: Hubble astronomer Guido de Marchi showed the wonders of the Universe to hundreds of children at the inaugural International Space camp "Deepspace 2007" held near the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station in Australia. Young boy and girl scouts from 11 to 18 years travelled from across the vast continent of Australia in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of man's exciting foray into the frontiers of space. The highlight of Deepspace 2007 was Guido's evening talk and slide show of images, from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, taking the five hundred plus audience on a journey spanning eight billion years. His words and choice of images resulted in endless questioning that lasted on into the night. Following the talk scouts created their own artistic interpretation of the beautiful Hubble images in a dedicated space art workshop led by Anne Brumfitt. The theme of the camp was the celebration of all space …

8 November 2007: Do you ever look at the beautiful images from Hubble and wonder how they were made? What exactly happens after the faint light from distant objects is detected by Hubble? How are these cosmic photons captured in space transformed into the glorious colour images down here on your wall or on computer screen? If you want to find out then Hubblecast episode 10 is for you! In the latest Hubblecast we explore how Hubble images the Universe and how astronomers and image processing experts bring these images together to create the stunning celestial vistas we know and love. Sitting in its vantage point 600km above the Earth, Hubble is a window on the Universe. It has allowed us to peer into the stunningly beautiful cosmos, creating exquisite views of the Universe we live in. You too can have a go at making your own images, just Google "FITS Liberator".

26 October 2007: A new peer-reviewed journal released today by the IAU will provide astronomy communicators with important tools and innovative resources to communicate more effectively the workings of the Universe to the public. IAU President Catherine Cesarsky says "We are pleased to announce the first issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal. The IAU is strongly dedicated to improving the global level of astronomy education and outreach." The journal provides astronomy communicators with a mix of resources, opinion and information on how to communicate more effectively to the general public the workings of the Universe. As Pedro Russo, Editor-In-Chief of the journal, explains, the CAP journal has an important aim: "As the astronomy education and public outreach community expands globally, it becomes increasingly important to establish a community of science communication experts." President of IAU Commission 55 Communicating Astronomy with the Public, Ian Robson: "Astronomy has an innate appeal to …

25 October 2007: These sharp images taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveal at least five shells of stars surrounding a brilliant quasar at the heart of a giant elliptical galaxy. The image at left shows the quasar, known as MC2 1635+119, and its host galaxy [centre] against a backdrop of distant galaxies. In the image at top, right, the shells can barely be seen because of the bright light from the central quasar. The image at bottom, right, was enhanced to reveal details of the faint shells. In both right-hand images, the objects below and to the left of the shells are background galaxies. A foreground star resides at top, left. The shells have never been seen before in this galaxy, located about 2 billion light-years away. They are evidence that the giant galaxy clashed with another galaxy in the relatively recent past. The shells are similar to ripples forming in …

11 September 2007: The colourful, intricate shapes in these NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images reveal how the glowing gas ejected by dying Sun-like stars evolves dramatically over time. These gaseous clouds, called planetary nebulae, are created when stars in the last stages of life cast off their outer layers of material into space. Ultraviolet light from the remnant star makes the material glow. Planetary nebulae last for only 10,000 years, a fleeting episode in the 10-billion-year lifespan of Sun-like stars. The name planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets. They got their name because their round shapes resembled planets when seen through the small telescopes of the eighteenth century. The Hubble images show the evolution of planetary nebulae, revealing how they expand in size and change temperature over time. A young planetary nebula, such as He 2-47, at top, left, for example, is small and is dominated by relatively cool, glowing nitrogen …

23 August 2007: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the entire ring system of the planet Uranus, tilted edge-on to Earth. The rings were photographed with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on August 14, 2007. The edge-on rings appear as spikes above and below the planet. The rings cannot be seen running fully across the face of the planet because the bright glare of the planet has been blocked out in the HST photo (a small amount of residual glare appears as a fan-shaped image artifact, along with an edge between the exposure for the inner and outer rings). A much shorter colour exposure of the planet has been photo-composited to show its size and position relative to the ring plane. Earthbound astronomers only see the rings' edge every 42 years as the planet follows a leisurely 84-year orbit about the Sun. However, the last time the rings …

25 June 2007: The successful video podcast (vodcast) with cool news from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the Hubblecast, is now produced in Full High-Definition (Full HD) format. High-Definition is rapidly evolving into one of the leading video formats in the broadcasting market. This is the first time – to our knowledge – that a vodcast has been delivered in Full HD resolution and demonstrates the European Space Agency's dedication to maximising the return to European taxpayers on their initial investment in the telescope. The Hubblecast features the latest and coolest news and images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is hosted by the enthusiastic young Dr. J – the nickname for Dr. Joe Liske, a German astronomer working at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO). The Hubblecast has been embraced by thousands of viewers in its first three months of its life, and is regularly ranked …

7 June 2007: The launch date for the fifth and final Servicing Mission to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been officially set by NASA managers to 10 September 2008. During the 11-day flight, originally termed Servicing Mission 4, space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts will repair and improve the observatory?s capabilities through 2013. Mission planners have been working since last fall, when the flight was announced, to determine the best time in the shuttle manifest to support the needs of Hubble while minimizing the impact on the International Space Station (ISS) assembly. The Hubble mission will also support an additional ?launch on need? flight. In the unlikely event a rescue flight becomes necessary, shuttle Endeavour is currently planned to lift off from Launch Pad 39-B at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. However, managers are constantly evaluating the manifest to determine the best mission options. Space Shuttle missions beyond the Hubble …

11 April 2007: ESA/Hubble VACANCY: Graphics design intern Duty Station: ESA/HubbleEuropean Southern ObservatoryKarl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2D-85748 Garching, Germany Duration: 3-6 monthsStart: as soon as possible Job Description:In the ESA/Hubble science communication office you will work with a small team of professional graphic experts and video animators to produce high-end science communication graphics for printed matter; TV and webpages.Read more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org/about_us Requirements: Preferably student in graphic design, 3D, new media or similar Good English Experience with some of the following: graphics design, illustration, 3D modeling and rendering, video editing, authoring, web design, Flash and Flash programming, layout, etc. Familiarity with some of the standard graphics software packages: Photoshop, CorelDraw, Cinema 4D, InDesign, Premiere, Encore, AfterEffects, Flash, DreamWeaver, etc. Good Communication skills Can work independently   Please send your CV in English and a few examples of your work to:Lars Lindberg ChristensenHead of CommunicationHubble European Space Agency Information CentrePhone: +49 89-3200-6306Email: [email protected]   N.B. ? Although …

7 March 2007: Now you can follow the latest and coolest news and images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope anytime, anywhere, for free! Just subscribe to the Hubblecast (see the links below). Hubblecast is a Vodcast produced by the ESA/Hubble team in Germany. A Vodcast is a short name for Video On Demand and casting, and is a term used for the online delivery of video clips content, often distributed via so-called RSS feeds. By starting to spread astronomical news using this new technology, we hope to reach and inspire an even broader range of the community, providing the most recent and interesting discoveries made by the "eyes" of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Video podcasts can be downloaded and watched from a portable media player (for example video iPods), and also with a computer as a file or a stream. All you need is iTunes, or a similar programme to play …

6 March 2007: Several hundred images taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have been woven together into a rich tapestry of at least 50,000 galaxies. The Hubble view is yielding new clues about the Universe's youth, from its "pre-teen" years to young adulthood. The snowstorm of galaxies in the Hubble panorama does not appear evenly spread out. Some galaxies seem to be grouped together. Others are scattered through space. This uneven distribution of galaxies traces the concentration of dark matter, an invisible web-like structure stretching throughout space. Galaxies form in areas rich in dark matter. Among the discoveries so far in this galactic tapestry are a giant red galaxy with two black holes at its core; several new gravitational lenses – galaxies whose gravity bends the light from background galaxies into multiple images; and a rogues' gallery of weird galaxies that should keep astronomers busy for a long time trying to explain …

20 February 2007: The German version of the "Hubble – 15 Years of Discover" book called "Hubble – 15 Jahre auf Entdeckungsreise" was just announced as the 3rd best selling German-language book from the large international publisher Wiley-VCH in 2006. This book forms part of the European Space Agency's 15th anniversary celebration activities for the 1990 launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and was produced by the ESA/Hubble astronomy outreach team in Germany. As a prize, the authors received an engraved crystal trophy that can be seen in the image above. Hubble's eye-catching images certainly have an artistic potential and this book shows the close relationship between the two at its best. To date the successful Hubble picture book has been translated from English to four languages: Finnish, German, Portuguese and German.

30 January 2007: On Saturday, Hubble's main camera, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), stopped working. Until a solution, at least in part, can be found, Hubble will be returned to work with the remaining instruments. Saturday 27 January 2007 at 13:34 CET, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope entered into a protective "safemode" condition most likely triggered by a short circuit in Hubble's main instrument the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). ACS had, since June 2006, been running on its secondary backup electrical system. An Anomaly Review Board has been appointed by NASA. It is being investigated whether ACS can be returned to using the primary electrical system enabling one of its parts, the Solar Blind Channel, to return to operation. The main part of ACS will most likely not be restored. A fifth Hubble Servicing Mission (SM4) has been scheduled by NASA for "not earlier than May 2008". Options for repairing the …

17 January 2007: A new book on practical science communication has just been published by Springer, New York. Presented by an experienced science communicator, this work shows how to create the perfect marriage between science and communication. Drawing inspiration and examples from his years of experience in the field, Lars Lindberg Christensen from the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre offers hands-on advice about some of the most central topics of practical popular science communication with numerous examples from physics and astronomy. Aimed at both the general public and a more specialized audience – working as science communicators in a variety of communication offices in scientific institutions, the book provides the inspiration and the steps to become a good science communicator. The hands-on guide offers practical advice on all aspects of science communication: product types, target groups, written communication, visual communication, validation processes, practices of efficient workflow, distribution, promotion, advertising, and much more. …

21 November 2006: ESA/Hubble VACANCY: Science journalism intern Duty Station: ESA/HubbleEuropean Southern ObservatoryKarl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2D-85748 Garching, Germany Duration: 3-6 monthsStart: as soon as possible Job Description:In the ESA/Hubble science communication office you will work with a small team of professional science communicators in preparing ESA/Hubble news and photo releases, publications, web pages, video scripts, and other public communication activities.Read more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org/about_us Requirements: Student in science communication or similar Very good English Very good MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Very good communication skills Reasonable basic knowledge of astronomy Can work independently   Please send your CV in English and a few examples of your work to:Lars Lindberg ChristensenHead of CommunicationHubble European Space Agency Information CentrePhone: +49 89-3200-6306Email: [email protected]   N.B. – Although recruitment preference will be given to nationals of ESO Member States (Members are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) no nationality is in …

20 November 2006: Today, an updated version of the popular ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator image processing software has been released. Version 2.1 has been enhanced with several key improvements that will offer a wide range of new possibilities and make it easier to produce colour images from telescopes in space and on the ground. In July 2004, a team of imaging scientists from the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory and NASA, released the first version of the FITS Liberator plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. This first comprehensive import plug-in for Adobe Photoshop allowed for direct access to the astronomical FITS data, a scientific file format employed by most observatories. The first version of the FITS Liberator brought non-professional astronomers the possibility to produce stunning astronomical images that, for years, had only been the privilege of the scientific community. With the advent of the FITS Liberator v.2, it became possible for people at …

15 November 2006: ESA/Hubble has joined the Northern Ireland Space Office (NISO) in a partnership that will bring physics and astronomy closer to Northern Ireland, and in particular, to the children of the community. Both institutions will also cooperate closely to raise science awareness in other areas of the region. On November 14th 2006, as part of the National Science Week in Ireland, the Armagh Planetarium, NISO and Space Connections, in collaboration with the University of Limerick, gave four presentations entitled "Time Travel with the Hubble Space Telescope". All four lectures, given by Robert Hill, were completely booked out by teachers and pupils from local primary and secondary schools. The last show of the day was held at the University of Limerick Concert Hall in front of nine hundred and fifty schoolchildren and teachers. There was tremendous feedback from the presentations, showing that there is confidence and genuine interest in the Hubble Space …

25 October 2006: Today a new metadata standard for astronomical images has been released. This standard is part of the Astronomy Visualization Metadata (AVM) standard that will facilitate access to "print-ready" astronomical images saved in general formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and PNG that have been mainly obtained from astronomical observations. Compelling imagery is a key tool of the astronomical education and public outreach (EPO) community to convey science results to the general public. These images are both derived from scientific observations and created as artistic visualizations of scientific results. They are typically available in common JPEG, TIFF, and PNG formats, not in the original scientific data formats (e.g. FITS files). Such resources are currently scattered across the internet in a variety of galleries and archives, but are not searchable in any coherent way that will isolate astronomy themed images in their appropriate context. Just as Virtual Observatory standards open up all data …

10 October 2006: On Sunday, 15th October 2006 from 10:00-17:00 there is a unique chance to meet the European team behind the Hubble Space Telescope – both scientists and people working in outreach and education. This opportunity is part of Open House Day at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching bei München, Germany. This year's Open House Day, organised in collaboration with the other research institutes in the area, coincides with the opening of the U-Bahn line U6 to the research institutes in Garching. There will not only be the latest news from the Hubble Space Telescope, but also plenty of information about ESO telescopes and technology. Experts are on hand to answer visitors' questions and explain the displays, together with lots of information material, free DVDs and more to take away. Make a day of it and have a look at some of the other research institutes in the area or …

28 September 2006: ESA/Hubble VACANCY: Graphics design intern Duty Station: ESA/HubbleEuropean Southern ObservatoryKarl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2D-85748 Garching, Germany Duration: 3-6 monthsStart: as soon as possible Job Description:In the ESA/Hubble science communication office you will work with a small team of professional graphic experts and video animators to produce high-end science communication graphics for printed matter; TV and webpages.Read more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org/about_us Requirements: Preferably student in graphic design, 3D, new media or similar Good English Experience with some of the following: graphics design, illustration, 3D modeling and rendering, video editing, authoring, web design, Flash and Flash programming, layout, etc. Familiarity with some of the standard graphics software packages: Photoshop, CorelDraw, Cinema 4D, InDesign, Premiere, Encore, AfterEffects, Flash, DreamWeaver, etc. Good Communication skills Can work independently   Please send your CV in English and a few examples of your work to:Lars Lindberg ChristensenHead of CommunicationHubble European Space Agency Information CentrePhone: +49 89-3200-6306Email: [email protected]   N.B. ? Although …

14 September 2006: A systematic search for the first bright galaxies to form in the early Universe has revealed a dramatic jump in the number of such galaxies around 13 billion years ago. These observations of the earliest stages in the evolution of galaxies provide new evidence for the hierarchical theory of galaxy formation – the idea that large galaxies built up over time as smaller galaxies collided and merged. An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to explore the formation of galaxies during the first 900 million years after the Big Bang. They reported their latest findings in the September 14 issue of the journal Nature. Deep observations in three dark patches of sky – the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey fields – gathered the faint light emitted 13 billion years ago by stars in primeval galaxies. Only the brightest galaxies could …

14 September 2006: ESA/Hubble has released the first comprehensive free digital archive with fulldome movies in the world. The movies are being used by planetaria worldwide in their planetarium shows. The format is 3600 pixels x 3600 pixels, lightly compressed single jpeg frames produced with with a 180 degrees fish-eye camera, or a standard 5 camera rig stitched together to a dome master. Some of the movies show Hubble images and some 3D animations. When shown on a big planetarium dome the Hubble images really come to their fullest expression, although some of the Hubble images contain even 10 times more pixels than can be shown even in these super high-res movies. So far 26 movies have been released, and more will be added as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope makes new discoveries.