From the desk of the HST and JWST Project Scientist
-By Antonella Nota-
Passing the Baton
This has been a good week! In spite of the resurgence of COVID and its fast-moving Omicron variant, as we approach the Holiday season we have many reasons to celebrate.
First, we have launched the James Webb Space Telescope! It was a beautiful launch, from the European Spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana. The Ariane 5 rocket performed beautifully, as expected, and its precious payload the James Webb Space Telescope, a technological and engineering masterpiece, is now on its way to its final home at L2. Webb’s exploration of the Universe will soon begin.
If you want to find new and updated information on Webb, look no further than our brand new ESA/Webb website, now live. This will be the one-stop shop for everything you want to find out about the mission and its scientific goals. You will be able to follow Webb on its journey in space and read the latest updates from NASA during the commissioning phase in their blog, which is also featured on the ESA/Webb website. You will also find there all the relevant social media channels, updated in real time.
The second bit of good news is that Hubble is back, fully operational and with all instruments working nominally! After the small scare of the loss of a few synchronization frames in the instrument computer, and the thorough investigation that followed, all instruments were brought back on line and the problem has not surfaced again. Read here about Hubble’s amazing accomplishments in 2021. As per tradition, the very best pictures of 2021 have been captured for posterity in the 2022 calendar. Download here your free copy and enjoy!
Last but not least, I am truly delighted to announce the new ESA Office leadership team, who will look after both Hubble and Webb and ensure that these two missions will be more productive than ever for you all. I am thrilled to introduce Dr. Chris Evans, who will be the next Project Scientist for Hubble and Webb and also the Head of the ESA Office in Baltimore, and Dr. Paule Sonnentrucker, who will be the ESA Mission Manager for both Hubble and Webb. The team could not be in better hands, and you will hear from them directly in the next Newsletter, as I will officially pass the baton on 1 May 2022.
There is still a lot of work that must happen between now and then, especially getting Webb ready for science. Exciting months are coming, and we want to take you along on the journey towards a future that will indeed be very bright!
Contact
Antonella Nota
ESA/HST & ESA/JWST Project Scientist
STScI Baltimore, USA
Email: hubblenewseurope@stsci.edu
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29 December 2021: -By Daniel de Chambure, Maurice Te Plate, Antonella Nota & Bethany Downer-
As watched from around the world with excitement, a very major milestone for this mission has just been successfully completed: Europe’s Ariane 5 delivered Webb into the first phase of its planned trajectory, with a launch mass of about 6200 kg, toward its final position orbiting the L2 …
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29 December 2021: -By Bethany Downer -
The ESA/Hubble outreach team is excited to share that our team will play a major role in the ESA/Webb science outreach. The brand new ESA/Webb website is also now live at ESAWebb.org.
The ESA/Hubble outreach team is coordinated through the ESA Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. While this Hubble outreach work will continue …
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29 December 2021: -By Chris Evans-
New ESA Hubble and Webb Project Scientist: Chris Evans
I started out at University College London, first as an undergraduate and then as a postgraduate. On my first observing runs I used the Two-degree Field (2dF) facility on the Anglo-Australian Telescope for a survey of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. 2dF was still fairly new, …
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29 December 2021: -By Paule Sonnentrucker-
New ESA Hubble and Webb Mission Manager: Paule Sonnentrucker
I am a French astronomer, a science operation scientist and now Mission Manager with the European Space Agency. After graduating from Strasbourg Observatory (France) in 2000, I started my professional career at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU, USA) first as a postdoctoral fellow in the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer …
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29 December 2021: -By Bethany Downer -
2021 was another busy year for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
In 2021 scientists throughout Europe published a large number of exciting new results. Of the various ESA/Hubble science releases published this year, some memorable scientific news that garnered particular public interest included Hubble’s evidence of volcanic activity reforming the atmosphere on a rocky planet …
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29 December 2021: -By Mahdi Zamani, Bethany Downer, and Bruno Merín -
We are so pleased to announce that in 2021 the ESA/Hubble and ESASky team started a collaboration that brings the spectacular Hubble images featured on the ESA/Hubble website to the ESASky application.
ESASky is a web-based app that helps users to interact with outreach astronomical images and datasets taken in different …
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29 December 2021: -By Bethany Downer -
To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble has released a new calendar for 2022.
The 2022 calendar features a selection of images from Press Releases and Pictures of the Week published during 2021. These include imagery of planets, star clusters, galaxies, and more. It can now be …
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