-By Chris Evans-
As we look ahead to a busy season of conferences and summer vacations, I want to share two significant anniversaries with you, and some other highlights before you depart for your well-earned breaks.
On 24 April we celebrated the exciting milestone of the 35th Anniversary of Hubble’s launch. As part of the build-up to the anniversary, ESA/Hubble released a mini-series of newly-processed images featuring NGC 346, part of the Eagle Nebula, and the Sombrero Galaxy. On 21 April we also released a new image of Messier 72, to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week series; the same target was the first featured in the series in 2010, but now we have the benefit of exquisite data at shorter wavelengths to add to the original observations.
Another cause for celebration was the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the ESA Convention that established ESA on 30 May 1975. Coming just shortly after Hubble’s 35th Anniversary, this was a good time to reflect on the near half-century of the successful partnership between NASA and ESA on Hubble, as the first Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies for the mission was signed in October 1977. At the core of the success of this long-term partnership has been the provision of ESA personnel in support of Hubble science operations at STScI since the early 1980s, and now, more recently, for Webb. The ESA Office at STScI is fully integrated into STScI in support of Hubble and Webb, with the team matrixed into the Instruments Division, JWST Mission Office, Science Policy Division, and Instrument Science and Support Branch.
The Hubble Cycle 33 Call for Proposals also closed in mid-April. Over 800 proposals were received, with 22% led by PIs in the ESA Member States, and the orbit request for General Observer (GO) programmes was oversubscribed by a factor of 7:1. Good luck to all of you who have proposed observations - we’re excited to see what the Time Allocation Committee recommends for the Cycle 33 programme! Cycle 33 observations will start on 1 November 2025 and run to 31 October 2026.
Furthermore, we have provided a brief introduction here to the new Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time programme, that is using Webb and Hubble to investigate the presence of atmospheres on rocky planets around M-dwarf stars. Secondly, there is a delightful background story here on the discovery of the strongly-lensed system that was featured in our March ESA/Webb Picture of the Month.
To those of you attending the European Astronomical Society (EAS) meeting in Ireland next week, let me draw your attention to a few ESA-sponsored sessions: the ESA Science Programme, the ESA Space Science Archives and our own ESA Webb team hands-on Special Session on the JWST Data Pipeline on the final conference day. If you have not pre-registered but are interested in joining, please contact me at [email protected] for further details.
Lastly, if you have ongoing or completed programmes with Hubble or Webb that you think would make for good science or image releases, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our outreach team at [email protected].
Contact:
Chris Evans
ESA/HST & ESA/JWST Project Scientist
ESA Office, STScI Baltimore, USA
Email: [email protected]
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17 June 2025: -By Chris Evans-
The Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) programme combines Hubble and Webb observations to search for evidence of atmospheres on rocky exoplanets orbiting around M-dwarf stars.
Starting in Webb’s Cycle 4, this new DDT programme will use 500 hours of MIRI observations to investigate the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’ concept of which rocky planets are able to retain an …
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17 June 2025: -By Chris Evans-
Following Webb’s launch on an Ariane 5 rocket in December 2021, the ESA/Webb science outreach team has featured a new image each month in the ESA/Webb Picture of the Month series. The series showcases remarkable Webb images from across the broad range of its scientific targets, alongside the popular ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week series, which recently …
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