From the desk of the HST and JWST Project Scientist
-By Chris Evans-
It is my great pleasure to be writing to you in my new role as the Project Scientist for Hubble and Webb, and Head of the ESA Office in Baltimore. It’s been an incredible time to join the ESA team here at STScI given the tremendous progress with Webb combined with the latest exciting results emerging from Hubble; what a year we have ahead of us!
There have been several recent milestones in the commissioning of Webb, not least the release of the outstanding alignment image and the news that MIRI had successfully reached its operating temperature. Stay tuned to our social media channels for news on the commissioning in the coming weeks, as well as Q&A sessions with some of the scientists from the ESA Member States who are participating in the first science programmes.
We also recently announced a call for proposals for public events to unveil the much anticipated Early Release Observations (EROs). The EROs have been designed to showcase Webb’s transformative capabilities, and we look forward to working with many of you on your events and celebrations.
Having spent most of my career studying massive stars in the local Universe, HST’s recent discovery of Earendel, a single massive star seen less than a billion years after the Big Bang, was truly remarkable. This exciting result captured the imagination of the public and our community alike, leading to the largest coverage of any ESA/Hubble release so far. Moreover, Hubble just celebrated the 32nd anniversary of its launch with this stunning image release. Demand for Hubble time was as strong as ever in response to the recent Cycle 30 call, with a total of 1062 proposals and a strong showing of 20% of them led from ESA Member States.
Bringing all of this together, we are delighted to announce that the long-awaited Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope VI conference in Stockholm is going ahead in the second week of July. The updated programme features talks on the latest Hubble results, combined with keynote talks from each of Principal Investigators of Webb’s science instruments and a public talk at the Nobel Museum by Adam Riess. It will also be a long overdue chance for us to meet together to discuss ideas for future observing programmes and how best to harness the powerful synergies of Hubble and Webb operating at the same time. The conference registration page is available here, and includes the option of remote attendance.
Lastly, we are looking for a Science Operations Scientist in support of HST. If you’re interested in joining our ESA team here in Baltimore have a look here for further details.
Contact
Chris Evans
ESA/HST & ESA/JWST Project Scientist
STScI Baltimore, USA
Email: hubblenewseurope@stsci.edu
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29 April 2022: -By Bethany Downer -
Everyone is growing eager for more Webb updates as commissioning continues and we get closer to the Early Release Observations in a few months’ time. Meanwhile, here is a summary of some significant milestones achieved by Webb in the past few weeks.
Verification of the on-orbit functionality of all Webb’s near-infrared instruments started while they were …
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29 April 2022: -By Chris Evans-
We are about to enter a remarkable period for astronomy. The start of science operations with Webb is fast approaching, while Hubble continues to surprise us with fantastic new discoveries. To bring the community together at this exciting time, we are holding the latest in the successful series of conferences on Science with the Hubble and James …
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29 April 2022: - By Bethany Downer -
On 30 March 2022 a special science release was published that made headlines worldwide. Hubble had established an extraordinary new benchmark by detecting the light of a star (nicknamed Earendel) that existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang, at a redshift of 6.2 — the most distant individual …
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21 April 2022: -Chris Evans, Bethany Downer-
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Observations (ERO) will be among the first spectacular images and spectra taken following the commissioning of the observatory. This release will represent Webb’s debut to the world by showcasing the observatory’s capabilities and is intended to have immediate and dramatic appeal for a broad audience.
This top-secret …
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