Newsletter 8 — July 2026

Message from the PIs

Welcome to the mid-year issue of the MAUVE Newsletter!

We are thrilled to share a major milestone for the MAUVE survey: our MUSE observing campaign was successfully completed in May! While observations were initially wrapped up in April (see details below), careful data checks revealed a few issues that required re-observing a number of observing blocks. Thanks to a rapid response following the identification of these issues, the affected observations were successfully repeated, bringing the campaign to a close. It has been a demanding but rewarding journey, and one well worth celebrating (as captured below with a well-earned team cake!). The full suite of data cubes is now being processed, and we are aiming to release them to the collaboration by the end of the year, unlocking a wealth of science opportunities for the team.

Meanwhile, MAUVE-HST Treasury Program observations have also progressed, as you can read below, and we are especially pleased that the spectacular HST image of NGC 4501 was featured as an ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, a wonderful recognition of the quality of the dataset.

Our collaboration continues to grow and evolve, and we are delighted to welcome six new members to MAUVE. As we enter this rich new phase of the project, it is particularly exciting to see the team expanding alongside the data and science opportunities.

This momentum is already reflected in our recent activities. On the observing side, the first data from Ian Roberts' MeerKAT S-band program were obtained in May with observations of NGC 4535; Woorak Choi's VLA proposal for deep S-band continuum observations of Virgo galaxies has been accepted, further expanding the radio component of the survey; and Jiayi Sun’s ALMA proposal to complete the high-resolution CO (2-1) observations of MAUVE was submitted in April — fingers crossed for a positive outcome. At the same time, the scientific output of the collaboration continues to build, with three MAUVE papers led by Toby Brown, Luca Cortese and Rongjun Huang published so far this year, showcasing the breadth of results emerging from our survey. The MAUVE-MUSE survey paper is also in the works, so stay tuned!

Lastly, look out for MAUVE results being presented at the European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting, ASA Annual Scientific Meeting and The many scales of galaxy environments in Ascona, Switzerland.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter!

— Barbara & Luca

MAUVE Team, Survey Management & Communication

New members. Our collaboration continues to grow, and we are delighted to welcome six new members to MAUVE: Jeff Kenney (Yale University), Bernd Vollmer (Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg), PhD students Faith Dalessandro (University of Kentucky), Cameron Morgan (University of Waterloo), Ryan White (Macquarie University) and Honours student Flynn Holthouse (ICRAR/Curtin). We are excited to have you on board and look forward to the new ideas, expertise and energy you will bring to the team.

Science Projects. A new MAUVE science project has recently been approved: The properties of stellar bars in the Virgo Cluster, led by Ryan White and Richard McDermid. The project will combine MAUVE MUSE data with complementary ALMA observations to investigate the role of stellar bars in shaping galaxy evolution within the cluster environment.

As always, if an approved project catches your interest, we encourage you to get in touch with the project leads as early as possible to discuss opportunities for involvement. The full list of approved projects is available on the MAUVE wiki. And if you have a new science idea you'd like to pursue using MAUVE data, don't forget to submit a proposal using the project form.

Observing Status

MAUVE-MUSE update. MUSE observations resumed on 14 January 2026 and concluded on 21 May 2026, bringing the MAUVE-MUSE observing campaign to a successful end. During this semester, we completed observations of the final seven galaxies in the program, including three that had been only partially observed in 2025.

Among the final targets were NGC 4548 and NGC 4579, the two largest mosaics in the survey, each requiring nine MUSE pointings to cover their full extent. With these observations completed, the MAUVE-MUSE sample is now fully observed, comprising 37 galaxies observed by MAUVE itself and the remaining three galaxies covered by archival PHANGS-MUSE data.

As described in the PI message, routine quality checks identified issues affecting a number of observations, necessitating the re-execution of several observing blocks. While this increased the total number of blocks obtained during the survey to 151, 142 blocks ultimately met our quality requirements and were retained for scientific analysis.

With the observations now complete, the focus has shifted from data acquisition to data processing and science exploitation. The final data cubes are currently being prepared and are expected to be released to the collaboration by the end of the year.

MAUVE-HST update. The MAUVE-HST Treasury Program continues to make steady progress. Fully reduced multi-band imaging is currently available for 11 galaxies, with additional datasets already in hand and awaiting final processing. Observations affected by failed or only partially successful visits are being rescheduled, with the next round of HST observations expected to begin in November 2026 and continue through mid-2027.

A significant fraction of the currently available imaging comes from the PHANGS-HST program, whose legacy products provide an excellent foundation for MAUVE-HST. Building on these observations, the MAUVE program is extending HST coverage to environmentally perturbed Virgo galaxies and delivering new imaging products for the collaboration.

The growing dataset is also enabling the production of science-ready catalogues. Point-source catalogues are now available for eight galaxies, while stellar cluster catalogues have been completed for five galaxies, providing valuable resources for studies of stellar populations and recent star formation across the sample. Get in touch with David Thilker if you are interested in these products.

A particular highlight this year was the amazing HST image of NGC 4501, obtained as part of the MAUVE-HST program, which was selected as the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month. This is a wonderful showcase of both the beauty and the scientific value of the MAUVE-HST observations.

MAUVE-MUSE Data Reduction WG

The first half of the year brought some unforeseen challenges when our cloud computing provider experienced a major data loss event. While none of the science-ready data were affected, the loss had significant implications for the intermediate products required for the survey paper and for future improvements to the reduction pipeline. As a result, much of the first quarter of 2026 was devoted to recovering from this issue before data reduction efforts could resume.

We are pleased to report that we are now back on track, with only four galaxies remaining to complete the family portrait shown below. As discussed at our June science meeting, we plan to officially release the full sample to the team once the reduction is complete. However, if particular galaxies are critical to your science, please let us know, as we are happy to make the corresponding data cubes available earlier. Our current goal is to complete the data reduction before the end of this calendar year. We expect this release to serve as the definitive version of the science-ready cubes through at least early 2028, while we continue to explore opportunities for further enhancing these already beautiful data.

While much of our effort this year has necessarily focused on data reduction, we have also made significant progress in testing and refining our data products workflow. A special thank you to Toby Brown, who has provided invaluable support on the software development side, and to Rongjun Huang, who has led the testing and quality-control efforts while overseeing the production runs on the Pawsey supercomputer. Our goal is to release a suite of multi-purpose data products shortly after the science-ready cubes are completed. Stay tuned for further updates.

— Luca