Space Telescope Science Institute

@stsci.edu

STScI is the Science Operations Center for Webb, Hubble, and Roman space telescopes, & Mission Operations Center for Webb. We help humanity explore the universe with advanced space telescopes and data archive. news.stsci.edu

@stsci.edu Oct 9, 2026, 8:14 PM

Launching #NASARoman was only the beginning! Listen as STScI staff shares what they’re looking forward to as Roman begins its next chapter in space. 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 8, 2026, 6:06 PMReposted by @stsci.edu

#NASAWebb has pinpointed the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst ever seen. The galaxy proved surprisingly small and young, which provides a clue to the source of the burst: https://news.stsci.edu/4hEmZip 🔭

$A field full of small galaxies of all shapes against the blackness of space. A few bright white stars show 8 prominent diffraction spikes. A small galaxy at lower right is highlighted with a white box. A shaded triangle extends upward to the corners of a larger box showing a zoom in of the region. Two fuzzy, light blue blobs are at center of the box, with a larger and brighter one at top. Just above the top blob is a white crosshair showing the location where a fast radio burst was detected.$

@stsci.edu Oct 9, 2026, 2:56 PM

#NASAWebb peered into the Flame Nebula, locating the faint infrared signatures of several brown dwarfs, objects so small that their cores will never sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen. The smallest among them is two to three times the mass of Jupiter: https://bit.ly/4iZyqC8 🔭

A collage of four images showing a dusty nebula. Two-thirds of the collage is taken up by a single image of the nebula, while the remaining third shows three insets stacked on top of each other. In the largest image at left, there is an orange and yellow fang-like cloud of matter that cuts this section in two. The top side of the fang shows more clouds of a dark brown shade, while the bottom shows filaments of light brown. There are a number of bright blue and red points of light spread throughout, three of which are circled in white and labeled with a number from one to three. Circle 1 is located at about 9 o’clock in the middle of the fang-like cloud, while Circle 2 is at about 2 o’clock and Circle 3 is located at about 4 o’clock, toward the bottom left. Each circle magnifies an individual object, which is shown in the three squares to the right, labeled 1 to 3 from top to bottom. Each image contains a single, fuzzy point of light in the middle.

@stsci.edu Oct 8, 2026, 6:06 PM

@stsci.edu Oct 8, 2026, 1:35 PM

Launching #NASARoman was only the beginning! Listen as STScI staff shares what they’re looking forward to as Roman begins its next chapter in space. Credit: D. Kirshenblat (STScI). 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 6, 2026, 1:15 PMReposted by @stsci.edu

NEW: The contrasting colors in NGC 7129 show differences in temperatures detected by #NASAWebb. The gold cavity at the left is hottest due to the central star and other embedded stars. The clumpy, red matter is colder and represents jets from less mature protostars: https://news.stsci.edu/3U8T7Bz 🔭

$A young star cluster filled with many stars that display the Webb Telescope’s unique eight-pronged diffraction pattern. At its center is a yellow star, which sports the largest diffraction pattern. To the left of the star, there is a region filled with yellow dust and gas that extends from the star to the left border. This yellow region extends from the bottom, covering about two-thirds of the image. The yellow region has several blue stars of different sizes embedded within. The top third, which lies outside of the yellow region, holds a few bright protostars, within dense gray gas. Those stars illuminate the gas, making it appear blue. A few red outflows from other protostars are visible above this grayish-blue region. To the right of the central star, there is a clumpy, flame-like plume of red dust and gas with protostars that emit a soft white light within. The plume is surrounded by more dense gray gas and dust. There are several background galaxies strewn throughout the image/$

@stsci.edu Oct 7, 2026, 7:25 PM

University of Michigan's Eric Bell spoke to staff scientists about extragalactic archaeology and what mergers do (and don't do) to galaxies and their satellites today at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The lecture was part of our ongoing colloquium talks program. 🔭

A person stands in a lecture hall giving a presentation. They are positioned near a large screen displaying slides about astrophysics, including text and images related to galaxies. Multiple screens and a laptop are visible in the foreground.

@stsci.edu Oct 7, 2026, 4:30 PM

How does the universe work? How did we get here? Are we alone? These are three major questions that drive the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program, an opportunity for recent postdoctoral scientists. Learn more and apply: https://bit.ly/4xjrMu3 🔭 ☄️

@stsci.edu Oct 7, 2026, 2:30 PM

Interactive: Explore the details of NGC 7129 to uncover the hidden features and activity within the clouds of this young star-forming region. Venture to individual points of interest or follow guided tours through related locations and stories. 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 6, 2026, 3:48 PM

Have you seen today's Google Doodle? 🎆

Learn more about the colorful clouds of NGC 7129: https://go.nasa.gov/4rNzF9M

A cosmic-themed Google Doodle featuring a nebula with vibrant colors including yellows, pinks, and blues. Stars are scattered throughout the image, and the word "Google" is centered in white text.

@stsci.edu Oct 6, 2026, 1:15 PM

@stsci.edu Oct 2, 2026, 7:22 PMReposted by @stsci.edu

Astronomers: Join us for the Rocky Worlds DDT Workshop, a community gathering focused on the science enabled by the Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) program, at STScI on November 16-18.

Registration closes October 16: https://bit.ly/4edubQ7 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 5, 2026, 3:17 PM

NEW: A surprising chemical clue has broken open a Hubble cold case from 1999. Astronomers now suspect the mystery signatures in the data are from a second-generation planet that formed from gas and dust ejected by a dying star: https://news.stsci.edu/46WpciV 🔭

Illustration labeled Artist’s Concept at bottom right. A gaseous planet in the right foreground, seen mostly in silhouette, orbits a small, white star in the background at left. The star is surrounded by a thin, bright white disk tilted from lower left to upper right. A semi-transparent tail of material comes off the planet toward upper right. Distant stars dot the black background of space.

@stsci.edu Oct 2, 2026, 7:22 PM

Registration closes October 16: https://bit.ly/4edubQ7 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 2, 2026, 4:50 PM

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is seeking a a Branch Manager - Facilities to oversee the safety, maintenance, operation, and long-term planning of Institute facilities and infrastructure: https://bit.ly/4y2xZem

@stsci.edu Oct 1, 2026, 5:51 PM

Their findings can be applied to our own solar system, which may have experienced more than one extreme debris disk phase. (6/6) 🔭

@stsci.edu Oct 1, 2026, 5:51 PM

The science team studied the mineralogical makeup of the disks. They found that their sample could be categorized into silica-rich and silica-poor disks. (5/6)

Graphic titled Extreme Debris Disks, Composition Across Time showing a plot and corresponding timeline of the solar system. The plot’s y-axis is labeled Silica with an up arrow labeled rich and a down arrow labeled poor. X-axis is labeled Age (millions of years) and starts with 1 at the left and increases by factors of ten, ending with 1000 at right. A key at right has 3 symbols: black dot is Silica-rich disk, purple is Silica-poor disk, and orange is Protoplanetary disk. All 27 orange dots are within the first 10 million years and range in silica composition. The 8 black and 13 purple dots begin to appear around 10 million. The black dots stop around 100 million. The purple dots continue right. The timeline below has the same labels as the plot’s x-axis. A gray band before 100 marks the Moon-forming impact. A gray band before 1000 marks the Late heavy bombardment. 3 blue bands stretch from left to right: Giant planet formation, Terrestrial planet formation, and Giant planet migration/orbital instability.

@stsci.edu Oct 1, 2026, 5:51 PM

Astronomers confirmed that extreme debris disks share three key properties: smaller dust grains than those in protoplanetary or classic debris disks, a high concentration of warm dust, and irregular brightness variations, all revealed by mid-infrared spectra. (4/6)

@stsci.edu Oct 1, 2026, 5:51 PM

Rare extreme debris disks harbor unusually large amounts of warm dust close to the star, in the region comparable to where rocky planets orbit in our solar system. (3/6)

@stsci.edu Oct 1, 2026, 5:51 PM

The environment surrounding a star changes as it ages, beginning with a juvenile, gas-rich protoplanetary disk where forming planets can reside, before evolving to a gas-poor debris disk. (2/6)

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