Hubble Archives

Typical abundances of 11 atom and ions in β Pic exocomets, relative to Fe ii and normalised by solar abundances. The numerical values used to build this figures are provided in Tab. 2. Grey crosses indicate the best-fit model with Saha’s equation -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Abundances Of Refractory Ions In Beta Pictoris Exocomets

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2025March 25, 2025

Beta Pic is a young, A5V star, known for harbouring a large number of exocomets, which frequently transit the star and produce absorption signatures.

The near-infrared transmission spectrum of HD 219666 b observed over two visits with HST/WFC3 G141. The spectra derived from each individual visit are shown as the gray diamond and square points, with a uniform 205 ppm offset applied to all points from the second visit. The error-weighted average of our two visits is shown as the black points, and the median retrieved model spectrum is shown as the green line with its 1- and 2-σ uncertainties represented by the green shaded regions. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

HST Transmission Spectra Of The Hot-Neptune HD 219666 b: Detection Of Water And The Challenge Of Constraining Both Water And Methane With HST

by Keith CowingMarch 18, 2025March 18, 2025

Although Neptunian-sized (2 – 5 REarth) planets appear to be extremely common in the Galaxy, many mysteries remain about their overall nature. To date, only eleven Neptunian-sized planets have had […]

A visual comparison of transmission spectra measured for various planets during transit (red points) and out-oftransit (black points). The p-value of an Anderson-Darling test comparing the two measurements is shown it the title of each sub-figure. The out-of-transit measurements were generated via 1000 bootstrap simulations where the white-light transit signal (see Table 3) was injected at various times of mid-transit and measured the same way as the in-transit data. The top row of planets have a calculated p-value of p < 0.05 indicating the in-transit and out-of-transit data are statistically different from one another. The bottom row of planets have p-values of p > 0.05 indicating they are not statistically dis-similar to the boot-strap simulations. For these planets we additionally compared previous measurements from the Exoplanet Archive with a flat-line using an R 2 metric. We find the previous measurements all have an R 2 < 0.54 which suggests the atmospheric signal is likely consistent with a flat line and the consistency between in-transit and out-of-transit observations may be because the spectra is naturally featureless. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Ground-Based Reconnaissance Observations Of 21 Exoplanet Atmospheres With The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2025September 18, 2025

One of the most prolific methods of studying exoplanet atmospheres is transmission spectroscopy, which measures the difference between the depth of an exoplanet’s transit signal at various wavelengths and attempts […]

Posterior distributions of the reference planet radius 𝑅p, water abundance 𝑋H2O, and temperature 𝑇 retrieved using fixed or variable values of the stellar radius (𝑅p) and planetary surface gravity (log 𝑔p) for HD 209458b. Cloud free (blue) and grey cloud (yellow) models were tested. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Parameter Degeneracies Associated With Interpreting HST WFC3 Transmission Spectra Of Exoplanetary Atmospheres

by Keith CowingMarch 14, 2025March 14, 2025

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope has provided an abundance of exoplanet spectra over the years. These spectra have enabled analysis studies using atmospheric […]

Section view of the ETSI optics and detectors. The telescope focal plane is to the left of the image. Light enters the collimator and is split into two channels by the multi-chroic which is located at the pupil. Identical prisms disperse the light which is then further filtered to sharpen the transmission cut on/off transitions and imaged with identical cameras onto sCMOS detectors. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Rapid Characterization Of Exoplanet Atmospheres With The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI)

by Keith CowingMarch 11, 2025March 11, 2025

The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI) amalgamates a low resolution slitless prism spectrometer with custom multi-band filters to simultaneously image 15 spectral bandpasses between 430 nm and 975 nm with […]

Metallicity calculated over the full lines of sight as a function of distance from the Galactic center plotted for this work compared with literature results. The red diamonds are the results from the fit to abundance patterns for all metals, the green and purple diamonds are fits to the refractory and volatile metals respectively. We do not include the fits for ρ Oph A because of the limited data. The fit to the refractory metals for θ 1 Ori C is 1.7, which we do not consider as physical, so it is excluded in this plot. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Investigating Chemical Variations Between Interstellar Gas Clouds In The Solar Neighbourhood

by Keith CowingJanuary 13, 2025January 12, 2025

The interstellar medium (ISM) is a fundamental component of the Milky Way. Studying its chemical composition and the level of its chemical diversity gives us insight into the evolution of […]

An image of a dense, star-rich portion of our galaxy, the Milky Way, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. -- NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

The Carbon In Our Bodies Probably Left The Galaxy And Came Back On A Cosmic ‘Conveyer Belt’

by Keith CowingJanuary 8, 2025January 8, 2025

Life on Earth could not exist without carbon. But carbon itself could not exist without stars. Nearly all elements except hydrogen and helium — including carbon, oxygen and iron — […]

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Interstellar, Status Report, Video, Audio, Webcasts, Podcasts

Hubble’s Inside the Image: Protoplanetary Disks (Video)

by Keith CowingDecember 19, 2024December 19, 2024

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning images of protoplanetary disks—dynamic, swirling structures of gas and dust surrounding young stars.

Comparison of nested POSEIDON Model B retrievals with and without H− and AlO, zooming on the 0.2 to 1.05 µm region. We display median retrieved spectra (solid lines) and 1σ confidence regions (shaded regions). Model B with both H− and AlO (blue) is the best fit model, but only due to imparting fine structure to fit the STIS slope. Future observations of the 0.2-0.8 µm region will provide more reliable inferences of metal species. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

JWST-TST DREAMS: A Precise Water Abundance for Hot Jupiter WASP-17b from the NIRISS SOSS Transmission Spectrum

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2024December 11, 2024

Water has proven to be ubiquitously detected in near-infrared (NIR) transmission spectroscopy observations of hot Jupiter atmospheres, including WASP-17b.

This is a montage of NASA Hubble Space Telescope views of our solar system's four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, each shown in enhanced color. The images were taken over nearly 10 years, from 2014 to 2024. This long baseline allows astronomers to track seasonal changes in each planet's turbulent atmosphere, with the sharpness of the NASA planetary flyby probes of the 1980s. These images were taken under a program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy). NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Neptune, Press Release, Saturn, Uranus

Hubble Celebrates A Decade Of Tracking Outer Planets

by Keith CowingDecember 10, 2024December 10, 2024

Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin […]

Hubble

Abundances Of Refractory Ions In Beta Pictoris Exocomets

HST Transmission Spectra Of The Hot-Neptune HD 219666 b: Detection Of Water And The Challenge Of Constraining Both Water And Methane With HST

Ground-Based Reconnaissance Observations Of 21 Exoplanet Atmospheres With The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager

Parameter Degeneracies Associated With Interpreting HST WFC3 Transmission Spectra Of Exoplanetary Atmospheres

Rapid Characterization Of Exoplanet Atmospheres With The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI)

Investigating Chemical Variations Between Interstellar Gas Clouds In The Solar Neighbourhood

The Carbon In Our Bodies Probably Left The Galaxy And Came Back On A Cosmic ‘Conveyer Belt’

Hubble’s Inside the Image: Protoplanetary Disks (Video)

JWST-TST DREAMS: A Precise Water Abundance for Hot Jupiter WASP-17b from the NIRISS SOSS Transmission Spectrum

Hubble Celebrates A Decade Of Tracking Outer Planets

Gullies In The Equatorial Region of Mars

Orbital Biosignature Assay: Watching Forests Grow From Space

Signs And Signatures Of Intelligence

CO Snow Lines Are Stabilised By The Vertical Transport Of Volatiles

Multi-year Ground-Based Survey Photometry of Active Comet 103P/Hartley 2 and Centaur (2060) Chiron: A Tale of Two Comets in the Pre-LSST Era