Hubble Racks Up 10,000 Science Papers
12.06.11
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has passed another milestone in its 21 years of
exploration: the 10,000th refereed science paper has been published. This makes
Hubble one of the most prolific astronomical endeavors in history.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has passed another milestone in its 21 years of
exploration: the 10,000th refereed science paper has been published. This makes
Hubble one of the most prolific astronomical endeavors in history. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)
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For the past 21 years thousands of astronomers around the world in over 35
countries have been engaged in Hubble research. Outside of the United States, the
top five nations publishing the most Hubble findings are the United Kingdom,
Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.
The papers are based on Hubble observations that cover nearly every frontier in
astronomy. The five top referenced science papers are, in order: the search for
distant supernovae used to characterize dark energy; the precise measurement of
the universe's rate of expansion; the apparent link between galaxy mass and
central black hole mass; early galaxy formation in the Hubble Deep Field; and the
evolutionary models for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.
The 10,000th paper's lead author is Zach Cano of the Astrophysics Research
Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom. He reports
on the identification of the faintest supernova ever associated with a long-duration
gamma-ray burst -- an intense gusher of high-energy radiation following the death
of a star.
As typical of many Hubble programs, this involved collaborative observations with
other observatories. The gamma-ray burst was first detected on March 16, 2010,
by NASA's Swift high-energy space telescope. The Faulkes Telescope South and the
Gemini Telescope South joined Hubble in making parallel observations of the
gamma-ray burst's location in visible and infrared light.
The number of science papers written based on Hubble archival data has increased
to the point where it has eclipsed the number of papers resulting from new
observations. Hubble's archive contains data from over 1 million exposures. This
astronomical treasure trove will serve as a key "data mine" serving generations of
astronomers for decades to come, long after Hubble has stopped operations.
The first science paper from a Hubble observation was submitted on October
1,1990, by Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson,
Ariz. This paper reported observations of the environment around a suspected
black hole in the core of galaxy NGC 7457.
Data from Hubble's longest operating camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
(which was active from 1994 to 2009), was used for nearly half of the papers.
The next most highly ranking instrument is the Advanced Camera for Surveys,
which was installed in 2002 and is still operating. This is followed by three
other top-ranking instruments: the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, the
Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph, and the Faint Object Spectrograph.
Unlike other space astrophysics programs, five space shuttle servicing missions
to Hubble from 1993 to 2009 repaired various components of the telescope and
upgraded it with ever more powerful instruments. This ensured an ongoing program
of cutting-edge science spanning over two decades. With a suite of state-of-the-art
science instruments Hubble is presently at its apex of scientific capability.
Related Links:
› Statistics about Hubble papers from refereed journals
› Hubble Space Telescope science site
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA
and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the
telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science
operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.