Announcements

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.