Podcasts about wide field camera

Embark on a celestial journey with today's episode of Astronomy Daily - The Podcast, where your host, Anna, brings you the latest cosmic updates. We'll delve into NASA's latest asteroid impact exercise, groundbreaking research on Martian water detection, DARPA's new quantum laser project, intriguing air samples gathered by Perseverance, and celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 21st anniversary with stunning images. Plus, we'll look at recent research focusing on heart failure in space. Let's dive right in.NASA recently released a summary of the fifth biennial planetary defense interagency tabletop exercise, aimed at exploring our preparedness for potential asteroid threats. Organized by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office in partnership with FEMA and the US Department of State Office of Space Affairs, this exercise aimed to assess and enhance our national response capabilities. Despite having no significant asteroid impact threats on the horizon, these hypothetical exercises are invaluable, providing insights into potential risks and response strategies for varying scenarios. This year's exercise involved a newly identified asteroid with a 72% chance of hitting Earth in 14 years. Nearly 100 representatives from US government agencies and international collaborators convened at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland for the exercise. The next steps include publishing a complete after-action report detailing the identified strengths and gaps and offering recommendations for improvement.In an exciting development, researchers believe that marsquakes could offer a new method for detecting liquid water deep underground on Mars. This intriguing possibility lies in the unique electromagnetic signals these quakes produce as they traverse Mars' subsurface. Traditional methods, such as ground-penetrating radar used on Earth, aren't effective at the depths where water might exist on Mars. But marsquakes could change that. Researchers at Penn State have modeled the Martian subsurface, incorporating potential aquifers to test the seismoelectric method. Their results are promising. By identifying these unique seismic signals, they could map hidden aquifers, providing critical insights into the presence and properties of water on Mars today.Next, we dive into an exciting breakthrough in laser technology. Funded by DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, they're investing in a game-changing project to develop a quantum laser that uses entangled photons, promising better precision over long distances and in adverse conditions. Traditional lasers are remarkable tools already crucial in various domains, but they are not without limitations. This is where the new quantum laser comes in, utilizing quantum entanglement to pair photons together, creating photonic dimers. This means that applications such as military surveillance, secure communications, and high-precision mapping could see significant performance improvements.Scientists are eagerly anticipating the return of air samples collected by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. These samples, gathered in titanium tubes alongside rock and regolith, are providing a golden opportunity to delve deeper into the Martian atmosphere and its composition as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. These 24 samples will be analyzed to uncover secrets about the planet's atmospheric history and to determine the presence of trace gases that may have been consistent since Mars' ancient past. Understanding this interaction is pivotal, as it could reveal how much water vapor resides near the Martian surface. Such knowledge can illuminate the mysterious ways in which Mars' water cycle has evolved over time.To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 21st anniversary, astronomers pointed Hubble's eye at a striking cosmic duo. Known as Arp 273, this pair of interacting galaxies presents a breathtaking sight. The larger galaxy, UGC 1810, has a disk that has been twisted into a rose-like shape. This stunning distortion is caused by the gravitational tidal forces exerted by its companion, UGC 1813. The image, a composite of observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, reveals the intricate beauty and complex dance of these celestial bodies, showcasing the achievements of Hubble and its ongoing contributions to our understanding of the universe.As commercial space travel becomes more accessible, researchers are delving into how spaceflight impacts individuals with underlying health conditions, especially heart failure. Recent studies have focused on developing computational models to predict how microgravity affects these individuals. Heart failure affects over 100 million people globally and is generally categorized into two types. Both types present unique challenges in a microgravity environment, underscoring the need for carefully tailored measures to protect the health of space tourists. Researchers have used advanced computational models to simulate these conditions and predict outcomes with a high degree of accuracy. These models allow scientists to anticipate the specific cardiovascular challenges faced by heart failure patients in space.That wraps up today's episode of Astronomy Daily. Be sure to visit our website at astronomydaily.io for regularly updated news, and to sign up for our newsletter. Don't forget to follow us on social media by searching for @AstroDailyPod on YouTube Music, X, TikTok, and Facebook. 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The Type II-P Supernova 2019mhm and Constraints on Its Progenitor System by J. Vazquez et al. on Tuesday 11 October We present pre- and post-explosion observations of the Type II-P supernova (SN II-P) 2019mhm located in NGC 6753. Based on optical spectroscopy and photometry, we show that SN 2019mhm exhibits broad lines of hydrogen with a velocity of $-8500pm200$ km s$^{-1}$ and a $111pm2$ day extended plateau in its luminosity, typical of the Type II-P subclass. We also fit its late-time bolometric light curve and infer that it initially produced a ${}^{56}$Ni mass of $5.7substack{+7.0-3.0} times 10^{-3}$ M$_{odot}$. Using imaging from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope obtained 19 years before explosion, we aligned to a post-explosion Wide Field Camera 3 image and demonstrate that there is no detected counterpart to the SN to a limit of $>$24.53~mag in F814W, corresponding to an absolute magnitude limit of $M_{rm F814W} < -7.7$~mag. Comparing to massive-star evolutionary tracks, we determine that the progenitor star had a maximum zero-age main sequence mass $

NOTE: Due to an unexpected production issue, our audio cuts out at 11:44 for just over one minute, and again at 13:51 for just over 15 seconds. We apologize for this. Since JWST launched in December, 2022, we have been holding our collective breath as it made its way to its final home at the L2 Lagrange point. Throughout its approximate month-long journey, JWST systematically worked through a complicated series of deployment and commissioning procedures, including the all-critical focusing and alignment of the telescope's 18 primary mirror segments using 132 different actuator motors. On April 29, 2022, it was announced that focusing and alignment had completed successfully. Tonight, we are joined by Lee Feinberg, Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for JWST, who will tell us what this exacting process truly entailed. Lee Feinberg is the NASA Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a role he has been in since 2002. Earlier in his career, Lee was the Assistant Chief for Technology in the Instrument Systems and Technology Division at Goddard and prior to that Lee was part of the optical team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope on SM1, STIS instrument manager on SM-2, and he co-led the concept study for Wide Field Camera-3. Lee was a member of the LUVOIR and Habex Science and Technology Definition Teams and focuses his current research on ultra-stable telescopes and segmented space telescopes. Lee is a Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Fellow and a Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Fellow. To learn more about Lee, visit his NASA webpage https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/feinberg.html as well as this featured Conversations With Goddard interview https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/james-webb-manager-lee-feinberg-is-committed-to-space-telescopes-and-music Lee explains the process of Webb's early alignment: https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=1087563742007119&_rdr Seeing the Light | Lee Feinberg | TEDxUniversityofRochester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWbd4-C4NaY Interview on Your Space Journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMWVo2HJnI Finally, be sure to follow Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leefeinberg1 And of course, be sure to visit the JWST website to stay up to date with the latest news: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.  

https://youtu.be/0pEmQ1zpKtI Host: Fraser Cain ( @fcain )Special Guest: Since JWST launched in December, 2021, we have been holding our collective breath as it made its way to its final home at the L2 Lagrange point. Throughout its approximate month-long journey, JWST systematically worked through a complicated series of deployment and commissioning procedures, including the all-critical focusing and alignment of the telescope's 18 primary mirror segments using 132 different actuator motors. On April 29, 2022, it was announced that focusing and alignment had completed successfully. Tonight, we are joined by Lee Feinberg, Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for JWST, who will tell us what this exacting process truly entailed.   Lee Feinberg is the NASA Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a role he has been in since 2002. Earlier in his career, Lee was the Assistant Chief for Technology in the Instrument Systems and Technology Division at Goddard and prior to that Lee was part of the optical team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope on SM1, STIS instrument manager on SM-2, and he co-led the concept study for Wide Field Camera-3.   Lee was a member of the LUVOIR and Habex Science and Technology Definition Teams and focuses his current research on ultra-stable telescopes and segmented space telescopes. Lee is a Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Fellow and a Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Fellow.   To learn more about Lee, visit his NASA webpage https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/meetThe... as well as this featured Conversations With Goddard interview https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/...   Lee explains the process of Webb's early alignment: https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=10875... Seeing the Light | Lee Feinberg | TEDxUniversityofRochester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWbd4... Interview on Your Space Journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMWV...   Finally, be sure to follow Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leefeinberg1 Regular Guests: Dr. Leah Jenks ( https://leahjenks.com/ / @leahgjenks ) Dave Dickinson ( http://astroguyz.com/ & @Astroguyz ) Pam Hoffman ( http://spacer.pamhoffman.com/ & http://everydayspacer.com/ & @EverydaySpacer ) This week's stories: - An impact crater on the Moon. - The damage by space tourism on the ozone layer. - What to see in the sky this summer. - A fast nova! - A super-Jupiter found in Gaia Data Release 3!   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Cosmic Cuts lives in the primordial soup of hip hop, boom bap, electronica, soul and Rnb. This first episode of 2022 features a collection of vibes, some classic some brand new brought to you by @unjust_justin so get ready for a bit of a look back and look ahead. Turn it up! artist - track mansur brown - want you d smoke - common sense ft sir emune - angles benny sings - song 13 (ft the koreatown oddity) benny sings - beat 2 (ft oddisee) carrtoons - father ft rae khalil carrtoons - call you right back (ft topaz jones) k, le maestro - can't fake it k, le maestro - come around ft chester watson rejjie snow - purple tuesday (ft joey bada$$ and jesse boykins iii) mxxwill - found it ft ill camille, sir mxxwill - woah ft jackson powell the reminders x crl crrll - keep it together med - the strip ft blu, madlib, anderson .paak singularis - coltrane q-rush - are you that somebody (q's ukg flip) fs green - shake ya body karyo - number one Teo - Orso (off top) gabriel garzón-montano - muñeca sons of kemet - think of home image credit: 30 Doradus Nebula NASA, ESA, and F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/32/2649-Image.html

The Astronomy, Technology, and Space Science News Podcast.SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 137*The Magellanic stream closer than previously thoughtA new study suggests the Magellanic stream is five times closer to the Milky Way galaxy than previously thought. The discovery means it will start colliding with the Milky Way far sooner than expected.*New Zealand's Rocket Lab launches its 22nd Electron missionRocket Lab has successfully launched another two satellites into orbit aboard its Electron rocket.*There's been an incident involving the James Webb space telescopeOops is not something you want to hear when moving a ten-billion-dollar space telescope. But that's what's just happened at the European Space Agency's Kourou Space Port in French Guyana as technicians were attempting to attach the new James Webb Space Telescope to its launch vehicle adapter on the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket.*NASA continues work to retore the Hubble Space TelescopeNASA has brought the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument back on line as it continues efforts to fix the Hubble Space Telescope after it suddenly went into safe mode in October.*Another Chinese spy satellite launchedAnother week and the launch of another Chinese Earth reconnaissance satellite bringing Beijing's total to over 148 surveillance spacecraft. *The Science ReportDeforestation in the Amazon rainforest has increased by a devastating 22 percent.A new study finds some Pacific Ocean rock fishes can live for more than 200 years.How does coffee affect your heart?Alex on Tech: stupid passwords.For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ If you love this podcast, please get someone else to listen to. Thank you…To become a SpaceTime supporter and unlock commercial free editions of the show, gain early access and bonus content, please visit https://bitesz.supercast.com/ . Premium version now available via Spotify and Apple Podcasts.To listen to SpaceTime on your favorite App automatically: https://link.chtbl.com/spacetime https://spacetimewithstuartgary.comhttps://bitesz.com

In this podcast Melanie Boylan returns to speak to Jordan Evans the Deputy Project Director of the Europa Clipper Mission about what the mission is setting out to do and what difference this will make with its findings. Jordan Evans He was born in New Jersey and moved to Southern California when he was 3. While in college, he had internships at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. After finishing his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering, he went to work for Northrop on the B-2 Stealth Bomber. He the decided his true calling was space, so his wife and himself moved to Maryland and he went to work at NASA Goddard in the Advanced Applications Section. He spent many years there and really enjoyed it. While at Goddard he worked on numerous studies and proposals and pursued his Master's Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. He then worked on the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) as the Mechanical Systems Manager and on Wide Field Camera – 3 (for the Hubble Space Telescope) as a Lead Systems Engineer. As opportunities arose, he and his family then moved to Phoenix, Arizona, so that he could be closer to their family in California and he could work as the Chief Engineer/Deputy Program Manager for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) at Spectrum Astro, Inc. While at Spectrum, he met several people from JPL and knew that the type of work that is done there that it's the type of work that he wanted to do. So he and his wife and two daughters moved to the Pasadena area in early 2004 and he has thoroughly enjoyed the Caltech/JPL culture and the exciting missions that he has so far had the privilege to work on. Europa Clipper NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Jupiter's moon Europa to determine whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make about 45 close passes over Europa, shifting its flight path for each flyby to soar over a different location so that it eventually scans nearly the entire moon. After each flyby, the spacecraft will send its haul of data back to Earth. The time between flybys will also give scientists time to study the data and consider adjusting the timing and trajectory of future flybys if they find regions that spark curiosity and need more study.

If you missed the fireworks on the 4th of July, you still have time to catch these celestial outbursts in dramatic red, white, and blue.

NASA is pleased to report that Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 is once again able to peer deep into the universe.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 is back in business.

This month in the news: the United States government shutdown and Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, Oct. 26, and completed its first science observations on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 2:10 AM EDT. The observations were of the distant, star-forming galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR and were taken in infrared wavelengths with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. https://spaceindustrynews.com Sponsor: https://arborsoap.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/space-news/support

James Webb คือใครหว่า? / 3 ภาพคลาสสิกกับความ EPIC ของกล้อง Hubble / ตอบคำถามทางบ้าน / แถมท้าย ช่วงสองหนุ่มนวดข่าว   SHOW NOTE ใครสนใจสั่งภาพ Hubble เข้ากรอบสวยงามเชิญได้ที่หน้าเพจ https://www.facebook.com/witcastthailand หรืออีเมล witcastthailand@gmail.com ครับ ขอบคุณมากครับ James Webb คือใคร? ทำไมกล้องโทรทรรศน์จึงตั้งชื่อตามเขา -1,2,3 3 ภาพ EPIC ผลงานกล้อง Hubble 2. Pillars of Creation -1,2,3,4 กลุ่มแก๊ซและฝุ่นที่เป็นส่วนหนึ่งของ Eagle Nebula ห่างจากโลก 6500 ปีแสง เป็นโซนที่ทุกอย่างกำลังขมวดแน่นร้อนระอุเข้ามา และให้กำเนิดดาวฤกษ์ดวงใหม่ๆ พระอาทิตย์ของเราก็น่าจะถือกำเนิดแบบนี้เช่นกัน ความใหญ่ของโครงสร้างนี้คือลองดูจุดแดงๆ แต่ละจุดนั่นเทียบเท่ากับดวงอาทิตย์ 1 ดวง หรือใหญ่กว่าเป็นร้อยเท่า (ถ้ามองเป็นนิ้วมือ นิ้วซ้ายสุดนั้นสูงประมาณ 4 ปีแสง) ดาวที่เกิดใหม่จุดชนวนนิวเคลียร์และปลดปล่อยพลังในช่วงคลื่น ultraviolet ออกมามหาศาล ซึ่งแก๊ซรอบๆ ซับไว้แล้วคายแสงออกมาทำให้เกิดความสว่างอย่างที่เห็นในภาพ พลังงานและรังสีสารพัดรูปแบบที่พุ่งพล่านออกมาจากดาวเกิดใหม่ยังพัดให้แก๊ซและฝุ่นควันต่างๆ ปลิวกระจายหายไปเรื่อยๆ อย่างรวดเร็ว จนทุกวันนี้ ตัวเสา Pillars น่าจะถูกซัดหายไปหมดแล้ว ภาพที่เราเห็นจึงเป็นเพียงภาพจากอดีตในจังหวะที่หาดูชมได้ยากนัก Explanation: To celebrate 25 years (1990-2015) of exploring the Universe from low Earth orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope's cameras were used to revisit its most iconic image. The result is this sharper, wider view of the region dubbed the Pillars of Creation, first imaged by Hubble in 1995. Stars are forming deep inside the towering structures. The light-years long columns of cold gas and dust are some 6,500 light-years distant in M16, the Eagle Nebula, toward the constellation Serpens. Sculpted and eroded by the energetic ultraviolet light and powerful winds from M16's cluster of young, massive stars, the cosmic pillars themselves are destined for destruction. But the turbulent environment of star formation within M16, whose spectacular details are captured in this Hubble visible-light snapshot, is likely similar to the environment that formed our own Sun. ถ้าซูมเอาท์ออกมาจะเห็นแบบนี้ ถ่ายในช่วงคลื่น infrared มองทะลุฝุ่นได้ เห็นดาวระยิบมากกว่าเดิม 2. Butterfly Nebula -1,2,3,4  เนบิวล่าผีเสื้อ สยายปีกกว้างกว่า 2 ปีแสง จริงๆ แล้วปีกนี้คือสสารและแก๊ซที่ระเบิดเปรี้ยงออกมาจากศูนย์กลาง ซึ่งเป็นดวงดาวที่ดับสลายตามอายุขัย แก๊ซในเนบิวล่านี้มีอุณหภูมิประมาณ 250,000 เซลเซียส สุกสว่างด้วยรังสีพลังงานสูง และกำลังพุ่งด้วยความเร็วหลายร้อยกิโลเมตรต่อวินาที เป็นภาพตัวแทนของการตายที่รุนแรงแต่งดงาม ภาพนี้เชื่อมต่อกับภาพแรกตรงสสารที่กระจัดกระจายจากการระเบิด supernova ของดาวดวงหนึ่ง สักวันก็จะขมวดแน่นเข้ามาและให้กำเนิดดาวดวงใหม่ เป็นวัฏจักรเช่นนี้มาหลายชั่วรุ่น Explanation: The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and is presented here in reprocessed colors. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). 3. Rose Galaxy -1,2,3,4,5 กุหลาบอวกาศ ถือกำเนิดจากสองกาแล็กซี่ม้วนตัวมาชนกัน ห่างจากทางช้างเผือกไป 300 ล้านปีแสง การเคลื่อนผ่านกันของกาแล็กซี่เป็นปฏิสัมพันธ์ซับซ้อนของแรงโน้มถ่วงอันก่อให้เกิดรูปร่างที่แปลกตา กาแล็กซี่เล็กด้านล่าง เกี่ยวดึงแขนของกาแล็กซี่ใหญ่ด้านบน (ซึ่งปกติจะแบนๆ เป็นกงจักร) ให้ย้อยลงมาจนมีความเหลื่อมระดับ มองคล้ายกลีบกุหลาบ ในอนาคตกาแ...

The end of the twentieth century saw a revolution in our knowledge of planetary systems. The detection of the first extrasolar planet in 1992 marked the beginning of a modern era and changed our idea of planets and planetary systems. The discoveries continue rapidly and reveal an extraordinary diversity of planetary systems and physical properties of the exoplanets, raising new questions in the field of planetary science. So far, more than 800 extrasolar planets have been detected, spanning a wide range of masses from a few Earth masses to a few tens of Jupiter masses. This Ph.D. Thesis is devoted to the confirmation via radial velocity follow-up of the candidate planets detected by the WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS), which is an on-going photometric monitoring campaign using the Wide Field Camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope at Mauna Kea (Hawaii, USA). The WTS and the present work were supported by the RoPACS (Rocky Planets Around Cool Stars) group, a Marie Curie Initial Training Network funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. Since the WTS was primarily designed to find planets transiting M-dwarf stars, the observations are obtained in the J-band (1.25 micron). This wavelength is near to the peak of the spectral energy distribution of a typical M-dwarf. Simulations show that operating in the J-band reduces the effects of stellar variability, which became important at optical wavelengths in cool stars. The J-band light curves that show a periodic drop and pass all the selection criteria, progress to the candidate confirmation phase. After a transit depth consistency check performed with i'-band observations, intermediate resolution spectra enable to rule out false-positive eclipsing binaries scenarios. Finally, high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up is performed to confirm, by the radial velocity method, the planetary nature of the stellar companion detected by the WTS. The spectra employed in this phase were observed with the High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) housed in the basement of the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas, USA. The pipeline for the reduction and analysis of the HET spectra has been created. Debug, optimization and test of the whole procedure were performed observing several target stars with different apparent magnitude and spectral type. These observations allowed to estimate the precision on the velocity measures for different targets. Errorbars of 10 m/s are expected for solar type stars of magnitude up to mV=10 and SNR of the observed spectra >150. Spectra with a SNR of 30 can be measured for faint (mV=14) M stars, leading to a final radial velocity uncertainty of about 60 m/s. Furthermore, a technical problem occurring under given instrumental configurations could be identified and fixed, removing a possible source of systematic from any later observation. Finally, the zero-point offset with respect to the HARPS data was computed allowing the comparison of the HET measures with those related to any other instruments involved in radial velocity follow-up. The radial velocities computed from the HET high-resolution spectra allowed to confirm the detection of the first two extrasolar planet performed by the WTS. WTS1 b is a 4 MJ planet orbiting in 3.35 days a late F-star with possibly slightly sub-solar metallicity. With a radius of 1.49 RJ, it is the third largest planet of the known extrasolar planets in the mass range 3-5 MJ. Its unusual large radius can not be explained within the standard evolution models, even considering the strong radiation that the planet receives from the parent star. Ohmic heating could be a possible mechanism able to bring energy in the deeper layers of WTS1 b and hence explaining its radius anomaly. WTS2 b is instead a 1 MJ planet orbiting an early K-star in about 1 day only. The measure of its secondary eclipses in the Ks-band will allow to study a highly irradiated planet around a cool star, cooler than many of the currently known very hot-Jupiters host star. This will provide an insight to the effect of the stellar spectrum on the composition and structure of hot-Jupiter atmospheres. Beyond the RoPACS program, the pipeline has been employed in the radial velocity follow-up of the white dwarf NLTT 5306, confirming the presence of a brown dwarf companion of 56 MJ orbiting its host star in 102 minutes, the shortest period ever observed in such systems. The discoveries of WTS1 b and WTS2 b demonstrate the capability of WTS to find planets, even if it operates in a back-up mode during dead time on a queue-schedule telescope and despite of the somewhat randomised observing strategy. Moreover, the two new discovered planets are hot-Jupiters orbiting an F-star and a K-star. Both are hotter than an M-dwarf, the main target sample of the WTS. As described in Kovacs et al. (2012, MNRAS submitted), no planets around M-dwarf stars monitored by the WTS (mV

NASA has decided to launch a Space Shuttle mission in 2008 to repair and upgrade the NASA/ESA observatory. This servicing mission will ensure that Hubble can function for perhaps as many as another ten years and will increase its scientific capabilities in some key areas. Two new scientific instruments will be installed as part of the upgrade: the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. Both will improve Hubble's potential for discovery. Around the same time of this mission, ESA will launch Herschel, the Orbiting Telescope with the largest mirror ever deployed in space. Herschel will complement Hubble in the infrared part of the spectrum.ESApod video programme