-By Chris Evans-
As 2025 draws to a close, it’s a chance to reflect on the amazing scientific discoveries that Hubble and Webb have given us over the past 12 months. Our annual retrospective of some of the science highlights of the year from the two missions is here, and I’m also thrilled to announce the release of our 2026 ESA Hubble & Webb calendar here.
In 2025 we celebrated the 35th anniversary of Hubble’s launch, and the 50th anniversary of the signing of the ESA Convention that established ESA in May 1975. April also marked the 15th anniversary of our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week series. Our team has carefully mined Hubble’s precious archives for the more than 800 exquisite images that we have featured in the series since 2010, but it has become increasingly difficult to secure sufficiently compelling images to share each week. We will therefore be moving to a monthly cadence in the New Year that will allow us to continue to showcase the most striking new Hubble images, together with additional image products. Looking further ahead to Hubble’s future science programme, the Cycle 34 Call for Proposals has just been released, with the deadline for submissions on 16 April 2026.
On Webb, we are looking forward to celebrating the 4th anniversary of its tremendously successful launch on Ariane 5 on 25 December. Looking ahead to Cycle 5, which will start in July 2026, your response to the latest Call for Proposals in October was truly unprecedented! More than 2930 proposals were submitted, and over 30% of those were led by PIs in the ESA Member States. In total, there were almost 2900 unique investigators in the Member States, which is more than 38% of the unique worldwide investigators.
I am very happy to announce the latest versions of our European Science Archives for both Hubble and Webb. On Hubble, as introduced here, this includes new science products from the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive (HSLA). The latest Webb archive, introduced here, includes a new interface and a first subset of High-Level Science Products (HLSPs).
Lastly, let me draw your attention to our next ESA-sponsored conference on the science with Hubble and Webb in Vienna next April. Abstract submission has now closed, but if you would like to join us to hear the latest results from the missions and to participate in discussion of the science questions that will shape the 2030s, registration will open in January here.
All the very best wishes for you and your families for the holiday season, and I’m looking forward to seeing what treats Hubble & Webb have for us in 2026!
Contact:
Chris Evans
ESA/HST & ESA/JWST Project Scientist
ESA Office, STScI Baltimore, USA
Email: hubblene...@stsci.edu
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17 December 2025: To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb have released a new calendar for 2026 that showcases beautiful imagery from both missions.
The 2026 calendar features a selection of images from Press Releases (from Hubble and Webb), Hubble Pictures of the Week …
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17 December 2025: - By Owen Higgins -
2025 was another busy year for us in the ESA/Hubble/Webb science outreach team.
Webb has had another highly productive year of science operations, resulting in many new insights that we have been able to share with the public — too many to fully list here!
A particular highlight this year was some fascinating new …
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17 December 2025: -By Chris Evans, María Arévalo Sánchez, Deborah Baines, Javier Espinosa Aranda, Victor Fernández Rubio, Monica Fernández Barreiro, Alvaro Labiano Ortega, Marcos López-Caniego Alcarria, Bruno Merín Martin, Paule Sonnentrucker-
The European James Webb Space Telescope (eJWST) Science Archive is hosted at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). Building on the decades-long partnership between NASA and ESA on Hubble, and now together …
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17 December 2025: - By Chris Evans, Javier Espinosa Aranda, Victor Fernández Rubio, María Arévalo Sánchez, Deborah Baines, Monica Fernández Barreiro, Marcos López-Caniego Alcarria, Bruno Merín Martin, Laura Masselos, Paule Sonnentrucker -
The European Hubble Space Telescope (eHST) Science Archive is hosted at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). As part of ESA’s multi-decade partnership with NASA on the mission, the eHST archive …
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