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Space Telescope Science Institute
@stsci.edu
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The Space Telescope Science Institute is the Science Operations Center for Webb, Hubble, and the upcoming Roman space telescopes, & Mission Operations Center for Webb. We help humanity explore the universe with advanced space telescopes and data archive.
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Appearing like a cosmic sweater, symbiotic binary star R Aquarii is seen in a combination of X-ray and visible light, including visible light from Hubble.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; ESO/VLT. 🔭
A symbiotic binary star. The structure resembles a cozy sweater with a red body, and blue wooly arms opened wide. The object is centered and take up about a third of the image horizontally. The background of space is black and dotted with distant stars and galaxies.
February 2, 2026 at 3:52 PM
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Among the objects being studied by #NASAWebb are exoplanets: planets orbiting stars other than our sun.

In a virtual talk on February 5, STScI's Dr. Néstor Espinoza will share the latest advancements learned from those alien worlds, paving the road to answer the ultimate question, “Are we alone?“
Natural History Society of Maryland - Exploring Distant Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is humanity's new eye in the sky. Orbiting at about
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February 2, 2026 at 6:47 PM
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Two stars in this #NASAWebb image are responsible for the horizontal jets. Known as Herbig-Haro 797, they are ingesting gas and dust—and periodically sending out two-sided jets. They’ll form over thousands of years.

Credit: ESA, NASA, CSA.
In the lower half is a narrow, horizontal cloud of gas and dust that stretches from edge to edge. It is largely pink at left and a mix of greens, oranges and reds at right. Two actively forming stars known as Herbig-Haro 797 are hidden on the right side, within the pinched waist of an orange section. A bright star with long diffraction spikes lies along the top right edge, and a few smaller stars are spread around. The background is covered in a thin blue haze.
February 2, 2026 at 4:52 PM
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Appearing like a cosmic sweater, symbiotic binary star R Aquarii is seen in a combination of X-ray and visible light, including visible light from Hubble.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; ESO/VLT. 🔭
A symbiotic binary star. The structure resembles a cozy sweater with a red body, and blue wooly arms opened wide. The object is centered and take up about a third of the image horizontally. The background of space is black and dotted with distant stars and galaxies.
February 2, 2026 at 3:52 PM
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WATCH: The Crab Nebula is an expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Located 6,500 light-years away, this glowing relic has been expanding since the star exploded, and it is now approximately 11 light-years in width.
Zoom into the Crab Nebula
YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute
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January 29, 2026 at 8:36 PM
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STScI helps everyone—astronomers and the public alike—explore the universe with advanced space telescopes and ever-growing data archives. Learn about our support for Hubble, Webb, Roman, MAST, and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory: https://bit.ly/4k9iHPp
The words STScI Updates, How We Support You run over an image of space that shows distant galaxies against a black background.
January 29, 2026 at 8:06 PM
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Over three years #NASAWebb observed the same area as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field for nearly 100 hours. Webb revealed more than 2,500 objects, including extremely distant galaxies that contain clues about galaxy growth in the early universe.

Credit: ESA, NASA, CSA.
An area of deep space with thousands of galaxies in various shapes and sizes on a black background. Most are circles or ovals, with a few spirals. More distant galaxies are smaller, appearing as dots, while closer galaxies are larger and some appear to be glowing. Red and orange galaxies contain more dust or more stellar activity.
January 29, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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#NASAWebb has set a new cosmic distance record: MoM-z14, the furthest galaxy ever confirmed (for now). In this image we see the galaxy as it appeared only 280 million years after the universe began in the big bang: https://news.stsci.edu/49Uanyg
A wide field of view showing deep space dotted with many small galaxies and a few foreground stars that display diffraction spikes. One galaxy is highlighted with a magnified image in a pull-out box in the lower right corner. The galaxy is labeled MoM-z14 and appears as a blurry yellow blob with a small red area at its top.
January 28, 2026 at 3:02 PM
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Applications for our Space Astronomy Summer Program must be submitted by 11:59 pm EST January 31, 2026, to receive consideration.
stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 26d
Applications are open for STScI's Space Astronomy Summer Program: an opportunity for college students to work with researchers and staff on projects that include astrophysics research; science software engineering; science instrument calibration; and science public outreach: https://bit.ly/4ptMkfs 🔭
Group of people standing in a room with posters and models related to space exploration, including a banner for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
January 27, 2026 at 6:26 PM
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Like searching for needles in a cosmic haystack, a team of astronomers used AI to find rare, oddball objects in archived Hubble data. Out of nearly 100 million sources, the team quickly found more than 1,300 celestial oddities, most new: https://news.stsci.edu/4sUNPpO
Six Hubble images of distorted galaxies are organized in a two-row mosaic. From left to right, in the top row: The left panel has a galaxy that resembles the number nine tilted on its side to the left and has red-orange regions scattered with blue knots. The center square shows an edge-on spiral galaxy appearing like a white thin bar extending from 8 o’clock to 2 o’clock. It has a bright, compact core and a small background spiral galaxy just below the core. The right panel shows two merging galaxies forming a convoluted shape that extends from 8 o’clock to 2 o’clock. The bottom row of galaxies: Left square contains a face-on spiral with faint, broad arcs of material to its left and right. The center panel has a hazy white, face-on spiral with a lumpy vertical line to its right that appears to curve around its core. The right panel shows an orange elliptical galaxy with a lumpy blueish galaxy curving around it to the right.
January 27, 2026 at 3:03 PM
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Stuck inside on a snow day? May we suggest watching science videos from the Hubble Space Telescope? 🔭
Hubble Space Telescope — Science Videos - YouTube
Videos that take a deeper dive into science and discoveries from the Hubble Space Telescope.
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January 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM
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OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a Senior Astronomical Data Scientist, to help advance our data analysis tools for our NASA flagship missions primarily in areas of data visualization: https://bit.ly/3YQDM7y
Logo of the Space Telescope Science Institute, STScI, over a backdrop of a colorful space nebula, with text 'Expanding the Frontiers of Space Astronomy'.
January 26, 2026 at 3:47 PM
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Cassiopeia A has been observed by astronomers since its discovery in 1948. Its close distance and brightness help telescopes like #NASAWebb see intricate details in the supernova remnant, informing astronomers about how its progenitor star exploded: https://bit.ly/4rGZQ1v
Cassiopeia A, a supernova remnant. This is a circular-shaped cloud of gas and dust with complex structure. The inner shell is made of bright pink and orange filaments studded with clumps and knots that look like tiny pieces of shattered glass. Around the exterior of the inner shell, particularly at the upper right, there are curtains of wispy gas that look like campfire smoke. The white smoke-like material also appears to fill the cavity of the inner shell, featuring structures shaped like large bubbles. Around and within the nebula, there are various stars seen as points of blue and white light. Outside the nebula, there are also clumps of yellow dust, with a particularly large clump at the bottom right corner that appears to have very detailed striations. The background of space is black.
January 26, 2026 at 2:41 PM
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The clumps within this supernova remnant, 1E 0102, seen by Hubble, are moving away from the explosion site at 2 million miles per hour (3 million kilometers per hour). At that velocity, one could travel to the Moon and back in 15 minutes: https://bit.ly/4iTwyJe
1E 0102, a supernova remnant. This is a circular-shaped cloud of gas and dust with complex structure. Clumps of blue filaments of gas and dust, spread out from 1 o’clock to 11 o’clock, expand from the center, forming a circular shape. Throughout the clumps of blue, there are wispy red filaments of matter. There are blue and white stars spread throughout on the black background of space.
January 23, 2026 at 3:30 PM
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Astronomers: Get more robust data! A new version of the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive is now live: https://bit.ly/4pKxQs3
Illustration shows large text, HSLA, above smaller text, Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive. Jagged rainbow-colored lines appear behind HSLA. The background is gray with various astronomical targets in black.
January 22, 2026 at 7:13 PM
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This illustration represents half the disk of gas and dust surrounding the protostar EC 53: go.nasa.gov/4jTphJU

Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI).
Illustration shows a small yellow sphere at center surrounded from upper left to lower right by a semi-circle that has the rough shape of half a pancake with rounded edges. The pancake has a hole in the middle and doesn’t touch the star. The semi-circle is bright yellow closest to the star, orange toward the center, and redder at its round edges. Several large teal arrows are within the semi-circle. Two arrows start in the area nearest the star at the left and right edges of the yellow disk. Each arrow goes immediately up and points outward to the left or right. Two additional large teal arrows appear at far left and far right, following a swooping pattern begun by the first arrows, with each pointing down to the farthest edges of the pancake. Small teal dots begin where the arrows begin, following the arrows, but also are embedded within the pancake forming a straight edge from the inner to the outer regions. A faint red haze extends from the star in the lower left diagonal and the background is black.
January 21, 2026 at 8:28 PM
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OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for an Archive Analyst, with a focus on user‑facing documentation and tutorials, to help advance our state‑of‑the‑art astronomical data archive. Python experience required: https://bit.ly/3YQDM7y
January 21, 2026 at 8:25 PM
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HIRING: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore is searching for a Office of Public Outreach Division Head. The person would lead the science communication and public outreach activities for the Institute.

Apply today or share this post with your network: https://bit.ly/4qeUTMt
Logo of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) with the tagline "Expanding the Frontiers of Space Astronomy" over a vibrant cosmic background.
January 9, 2026 at 7:50 PM
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#NASAWebb helped researchers figure out how crystalline silicates, which require intense heat to form, can end up at the incredibly cold outskirts of planetary systems. Before-and-after data show silicates form near a star and are shot out by its winds: https://news.stsci.edu/4qUo7A1
A rectangular image of the Serpens Nebula with black vertical rectangles at the bottom left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right at the same angle. At center-left is a larger star that is circled. This star has Webb’s signature diffraction spikes, but along the right also has an arc of white, with the circular edge starting at the center of the star. Mostly blue gas fills the center. There is a particularly bright central star. The gas to the right is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field. The brightest sources have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes.
January 21, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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#NASAWebb’s new view of the famous Helix Nebula zooms into a section of the shells of gas cast off by a dying star, revealing pillars that look like comets with extended tails: https://news.stsci.edu/4qPKTsL
A closeup of a small section of the Helix Nebula, an expanding shell of gas and dust. Thousands of orange and gold comet-like pillars stream upward from the bottom, like thin liquid blown up a sheet of glass. These pillars are around the circumference of the arced shell, which forms a partial orange semi-circle at the bottom. The pillars are more numerous and denser at the bottom, and darker red. They fade to orange and then yellow in the arc. In the top two-thirds, they are thinner and more golden, and it’s easier to see the black background of space. Several bright blue stars, some with diffraction spikes, are scattered throughout. A few larger stars are on the right side.
January 20, 2026 at 3:06 PM
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Néstor Espinoza, astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, joins Dean Regas on "Looking Up" to talk about TRAPPIST-1, the planetary system Espinoza calls "as alien as it gets."
Trappist-1 is Not Like Our Sun (with Dr. Néstor Espinoza)
The universe is enormous and time to observe it is limited. This means planet-hunters have to be extra picky in their search for habitable worlds. Dean chats with Dr. Néstor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute who has his ey...
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January 20, 2026 at 7:36 PM
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Watch as the most detailed infrared view of the Helix Nebula from #NASAWebb is put into context using the famous visible light image from Hubble and previous infrared imaging from the retired Spitzer Space Telescope: news.stsci.edu/4qPKTsL
January 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM
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#NASAWebb’s new view of the famous Helix Nebula zooms into a section of the shells of gas cast off by a dying star, revealing pillars that look like comets with extended tails: https://news.stsci.edu/4qPKTsL
A closeup of a small section of the Helix Nebula, an expanding shell of gas and dust. Thousands of orange and gold comet-like pillars stream upward from the bottom, like thin liquid blown up a sheet of glass. These pillars are around the circumference of the arced shell, which forms a partial orange semi-circle at the bottom. The pillars are more numerous and denser at the bottom, and darker red. They fade to orange and then yellow in the arc. In the top two-thirds, they are thinner and more golden, and it’s easier to see the black background of space. Several bright blue stars, some with diffraction spikes, are scattered throughout. A few larger stars are on the right side.
January 20, 2026 at 3:06 PM
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Space Telescope Science Institute staff got a glimpse of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as nears completion in the cleanroom at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 🔭 #NASARoman
Visiting the Roman Space Telescope at NASA Goddard #Shorts
YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute
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January 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM
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OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a Senior Full Stack Engineer to join our Web Application Services Branch, providing development and operational maintenance of applications and processes to support our NASA missions: https://bit.ly/3ZlFqhA
January 19, 2026 at 3:11 PM