sci23005 — Announcement

2023 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb highlights

15 December 2023

-Bethany Downer-

2023 marked another eventful year for the ESA/Hubble/Webb science outreach team.

This year we celebrated the first year of science operations with Webb. Some notable milestones that were shared with the media and the public included Webb’s confirming its first exoplanet, the first detection of any form of light emitted by an exoplanet as small and as cool as the rocky planets in our own Solar System, the investigation of the complex dusty structures of the Fomalhaut system, the confirmation of gas — specifically water vapour — around a comet in the main asteroid belt for the first time, the mapping of a large plume on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the discovery of a carbon source on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Webb’s first detection of a heavy element from a star merger (tellurium).

European scientists also made great use of Webb’s instruments to publish a variety of notable results throughout 2023. This includes Webb’s detection of what may be its smallest asteroid to date, the discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of the molecular cloud Chameleon I, the first detection of a crucial carbon molecule in a planet-forming disc, the observation of carbon-rich dust grains in the first billion years of cosmic time, the detection of water vapour in a rocky planet-forming zone, the detection of carbon-bearing molecules (including methane and carbon dioxide) on exoplanet K2-18 b, and Webb’s contribution to our understanding of how rocky planets can form in extreme environments.

Each of Webb’s new images continues to be met with excitement from the science community and the public alike. This includes ESA/Webb’s popular Picture of the Month series, which features a new original image from Webb each month and whose targets in 2023 have included the lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2149, Herbig Haro object 797 (HH 797), the countless stars in the vast irregular galaxy NGC 6822, and the spiral galaxies NGC 5068, M51 and M83. 

2023 also saw a variety of notable Webb image releases. To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, a new Webb image was released of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Headlines also include Webb’s views of popular targets like NGC 346, the Ring Nebula, Sagittarius C, the Orion Bar region of the Orion nebula, and Cassiopeia A (MIRI and NIRCam images).

While Webb continued to capture the public’s attention, the Hubble Space Telescope reminded us that it continues to capture valuable data for astronomers with its unique capabilities, giving us more beautiful images for everyone to enjoy. In 2023, Hubble directly measured the mass of a lone white dwarf for the first time, uncovered what may be the best evidence yet for the presence of a rare class of intermediate-sized black holes, observed a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient where it wasn’t expected to be found (far away from any host galaxy), and measured the size of the nearest transiting Earth-sized planet. Notable new Hubble images include those of Jupiter and Uranus, the 33rd anniversary image of NGC 1333, and the dazzling star cluster known as Terzan 12. Hubble also followed up its observations of the asteroid Dimorphos (which was the target of a deliberate NASA spacecraft collision in September 2022 to alter its trajectory) in March 2023 and July 2023.

Of particular note, in November 2023 Hubble and Webb teamed up to study an expansive galaxy cluster known as MACS0416, resulting in a stunning panchromatic image that combines visible and infrared light to assemble one of the most comprehensive views of the Universe ever obtained. 

Looking ahead to ESA/Webb’s and ESA/Hubble’s activities in 2024, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescopes’ continued success and the use of Hubble and Webb data by European institutions and scientists. ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb can help scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the 2023 release highlights mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch with us as early as possible so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!

In the meantime, we encourage you to follow the ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb social media channels to keep up with the latest updates about how European scientists and engineers are contributing to this mission. As always, we encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or ideas you’d like to discuss!

Contacts

Bethany Downer
ESA/Webb & ESA/Hubble Chief Science Communications Officer
E-mail: Bethany.Downer@esawebb.org