Skip to main content

See what James Webb and Hubble are observing right now with this tool

If you’re looking for a relaxing way to peruse the fascinating sights of space on your lunch break, then a newly updated tool from NASA has you covered. The Space Telescope Live tools show the current targets of the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, letting you browse the cosmos from the perspective of two of the hardest-working telescopes out there.

You can visit the web-based tools at WebbTelescope for the James Webb Space Telescope and HubbleSite for the Hubble Space Telescope. Clicking on a link will bring you to a portal showing the current and past observations of the telescope and a ton of detail about the observations.

Recommended Videos

At time of writing, for example, the tracker shows James Webb observing a region called HST10 using its NIRSpec and MIRI instruments. This particular observation is part of a project using MIRI’s integral field unit (IFU), a spectroscopy mode that can observe either single stars or larger targets like nebulae. The study is looking at gas, dust, and molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in protoplanetary disks, which are the disks of matter from which planets form.

A screenshot of Webb's current observation target, HST10.
A screenshot of Webb’s current observation target, HST10. Space Telescope Live: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and CDS.

The images you see on the tracker aren’t the live images being pulled straight from the telescope, as that data still needs to be processed. Instead, they use existing data from projects like the Two Micron All Sky Survey and the Digitized Sky Survey 2 that show images of the region that the telescope is currently pointed at.

When you see the current target through the tracker, you can use the Observation Details button at the top right to pull up information about the instruments being used, the science topics being researched, and the particular project and principal investigator of the research.

You can also see a schedule of when observations started and ended, and their total duration — they are often shorter than you might imagine. The above observation, for example, lasted less than 90 minutes. Typically, projects have multiple observation blocks over a period of months, but with many different researchers wanting precious time on the telescope, the project planners have to be very efficient with the time they are allotted.

You can also click through older observations using the Previous Target and Next Target buttons. In addition to showing you the variety of objects that the telescopes observe, from nebulae to stars to galaxies, this also gives you a sense of how the telescope tracks its targets across the sky — and it also shows how many different observations get squeezed into a day.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
One half of this wild exoplanet reaches temperatures of 1,450 degrees Fahrenheit
webb wasp 39b dayside nightside stsci 01j2f12rm1s3n39yj938nhsf93 png

This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like based on indirect transit observations from JWST and other space- and ground-based telescopes. Data collected by its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) show variations between the morning and evening atmosphere of the planet. NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

One of the ground-breaking abilities of the James Webb Space Telescope is that researchers can use it to not only detect distant planets but also to peer into their atmosphere. Now, new research using Webb has uncovered differing conditions between morning and evening on a distant exoplanet, the first time such differences have been observed on a planet outside our solar system.

Read more
Webb captures a Penguin and an Egg for its two-year anniversary
This “penguin party” is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow.

This “penguin party” is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, called the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, called the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Today, July 12, marks two years since the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope were unveiled. In that time, Webb has discovered the most distant galaxies known, uncovered surprises about the early universe, peered into the atmospheres of distant planets, and produced a plethora of beautiful images of space.

Read more
James Webb snaps a colorful image of a star in the process of forming
L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is a molecular cloud that harbors a protostar. It resides about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The more diffuse blue light and the filamentary structures in the image come from organic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while the red at the center of this image is an energized, thick layer of gases and dust that surrounds the protostar. The region in between, which shows up in white, is a mixture of PAHs, ionized gas, and other molecules.

L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is a molecular cloud that harbors a protostar. It resides about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a young star called a protostar and the huge outflows of dust and gas that are thrown out as it consumes material from its surrounding cloud. This object has now been observed using two of Webb's instruments: a previous version that was taken in the near-infrared with Webb's NIRCam camera, and new data in the mid-infrared taken with Webb's MIRI instrument.

Read more