MAST is an archive of data from a variety of astronomical telescopes. Also follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAST_News Congressional history.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) was already operating an efficient archive for distribution of the Hubble Space Telescope data in 1997, when the International Ultraviolet Explorer mission ended and NASA began to search for a permanent home for the IUE data archive. The clear synergy between HST and IUE science made it logical to combine the data into a single archive. Soon thereafter
06/04/2026
New HLSP: TARS provides systematics-corrected light curves and Lomb-Scargle periodograms for 39 million star-sector combinations (7.5 million unique stars) observed by TESS between Sectors 1 and 96. This dataset was used to measure rotation periods from >1 million stars. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/tars
05/29/2026
HLSP Update: Scylla adds 1.5 million new stellar SED fits and dust maps for 60+ fields across the SMC and LMC. SED fits provide stellar mass, age, distance, metallicities, and dust properties. Parsec-scale dust maps provide 10x higher resolution than existing maps. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/scylla
05/18/2026
New HLSP: SKYSURF combines 143,914 Hubble ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS, and WFC3/IR images from 2002-2020 to probe the extragalactic background light (EBL) at an unprecedented scale.
The release includes high‑level science products such as the sky surface brightness measurements from O’Brien et al. 2023 (SKYSURF‑4), the ProFound sky maps from Tompkins et al. 2026 (SKYSURF‑9), and the drizzled mosaics and source catalogs from Carter et al. 2026 (SKYSURF‑10).
https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/skysurf
05/18/2026
HLSP Update: QLP calibrated light curves from TESS full frame images for Sector 101 are now available at MAST. This Sector adds 1,801,255 targets derived from 200 second cadence FFIs. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/qlp
05/13/2026
HLSP Update: TESS-SPOC calibrated light curves and target pixel files from TESS full frame images for Sector 84 are now available at MAST. This Sector adds 159,999 targets derived from 200 second cadence FFIs. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/tess-spoc
04/30/2026
HLSP Update: TESS-SPOC calibrated light curves and target pixel files from TESS full frame images for Sector 83 are now available at MAST. This Sector adds 159,997 targets derived from 200 second cadence FFIs. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/tess-spoc
04/24/2026
HLSP Update: QLP calibrated light curves from TESS full frame images for Sector 100 are now available at MAST. This Sector adds 2,049,834 targets derived from 200 second cadence FFIs.
https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/qlp
04/22/2026
HLSP Update: OPAL adds HST observations of Jupiter Cycle 32 from December 2025, now available at MAST. archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/opal
04/09/2026
New HLSP: NGC5044-HST analyzes the morphology of ionized gas filaments and dust structures in the central regions of NGC 5044. This dataset enables detailed studies of the spatial relationship between warm ionized gas, dust, and potential sites of recent star formation in this nearby galaxy group. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/ngc5044-hst
04/09/2026
HLSP Update: REFERENCE-ATLASES, which includes changes from September 2025 (which were not announced previously) and April 2026. https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/reference-atlases
1) New ACS, COS, and STIS throughputs are being delivered for ETC version 34.2. ACS/SBC throughputs are updated due to sensitivity measurements taken 2026 Mar 15. COS throughputs are updated due to the recent delivery of a new FLUXTAB and other reference files for use at LP7. G130M blue modes, 1055 and 1096, and standard modes, 1222 and 1291, now use LP7 sensitivities. G160M modes now use LP10 sensitivities. STIS throughputs are updated due to changes in the time-dependent sensitivity for the CCD and NUVMAMA detectors.
2) New radial velocities for Vega & WD0308-565. New WFC3 grism spectra, mostly from program 17906. New WFC3 and/or ACS photometry, mostly from program 17906. New STIS spectra for 10 stars from program 17207. For those stars with WFC3 grism data or STIS observations for the first time, file names end with stis_001.fits. A faint spoiler star discovered in some WFC3 grism observations of wd2117_539. The faint wd2149_021 & sdss132811 show a significant change in the STIS SEDs because of improved background subtraction.
3) WFC3 IR component throughput tables including corrections for detector time-dependent sensitivity loss, following the December 2024 delivery of a time-dependent image photometry reference table, aka IMPHTTAB. This delivery will enable users to generate accurate bandpasses and observations.
4) There new sets of filters were released:
New bandpasses for GAIA Blue (GBP) and Red (GRP) photometers from Gaia EDR3 data. These were obtained from https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia and documented in Riello M.Gaial 2021,"Early Data Release 3 photometric passbands", Astron. & Astrophys. 649, A3.
New bandpasses for filters z, y, j, h, and ks for the VISTA VIRCAM instrument and published by the ESO VISTA consortium. These bandpasses were obtained from https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/decommissioned/vircam/inst.html
New bandpasses for filters f149w, f148wa, f154w, f169m, f172m, n242w, n219m, n245m, n263m, and n279n aboard the ASTROSAT UVIT instrument and documented in S. N. Tandon et al 2020, AJ, 159, 158. The bandpasses were obtained from https://www.iiap.res.in/projects/uvit/instrument/filters/