246th meeting

Press Information

246
Anchorage, Alaska
246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Anchorage, Alaska
8 – 12 June 2025
Links

2 June 2025 (Materials updated 11 June)

Contact:
Dr. Susanna Kohler
AAS Press Officer
+1 202-328-2010 x127

Dr. Kerry Hensley
AAS Deputy Press Officer
+1 202-328-2010 x138

Astronomers, educators, students, and journalists will gather in Anchorage, Alaska, from 8 to 12 June 2025 for the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This joint conference with the AAS Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) and Solar Physics Division (SPD) will feature a variety of scientific presentations, workshops, town halls, and more. Of particular interest to reporters, the AAS Press Office will also host five press conferences on the latest discoveries in astronomy, planetary sciences, space sciences, and more. Meeting hashtag: #aas246. 

The venues for this summer’s AAS meeting are the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center (600 W 7th Ave) and the William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center (555 W 5th Ave). The AAS offers complimentary press registration for the meeting to bona fide working journalists and public-information officers (PIOs), as explained below.

Meeting links:

Important Preliminaries

All attendees at the meeting — including press registrants — are expected to follow our Guide to AAS Meeting Etiquette, Anti-Harassment Policy for AAS & Division Meetings & Activities, and Code of Ethics. In addition, attendees agree to the Statement of Care and Masking Policy and our Event Photography/Videography Policy. Please read these guidelines/policies before you come to Anchorage; your participation in the meeting is taken to signify your acknowledgment that you have read them and you agree to adhere to them.

Press Registration

The AAS offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and PIOs who meet the eligibility criteria, as described on the AAS press website.

There will be two options available to press registrants at AAS 246:

  1. In-Person Press – Full Meeting Registration
    This option provides admittance to all in-person meeting events, sessions, and spaces, and it includes access to all virtual content. We ask that you only select the full registration if you do intend to go to Anchorage, so that we can obtain an approximate on-site head count in advance.
  2. Virtual Press Registration
    This option provides online access to limited meeting content, which will include press conferences, live-streamed plenary talks, and the NASA and NSF town halls; the iPoster gallery; and the AAS 246 Slack workspace. Content excluded: in-person receptions, workshops, press tour, town halls (except for NASA and NSF), and all oral sessions.

To request press registration, first check our eligibility criteria, then contact the AAS Press Office with your name and media affiliation (or “freelance” if applicable); please specify "AAS 246 IN-PERSON press registration" or "AAS 246 VIRTUAL press registration" in the subject line. If your eligibility is confirmed, you'll receive a special promotional code that you can use to register for the meeting the same way regular attendees do, i.e., via the AAS 246 registration page.

Press registration deadline: Wednesday, 4 June 2025.

See our list of current press registrants.

Press Facilities

The AAS will operate a press office in Ballroom D, Level 3 of the Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center, with working space, printer/photocopier, power strips, and internet connectivity for reporters and PIOs.

Press office staff:

AAS 246 Astrobites Media Interns, Lucas Brown and Maggie Verrico, will also assist in the press office. Susanna Kohler, AAS Press Officer & Communications Manager, will assist remotely.

There will be a dedicated press interview room in the Spurr Room, Summit Hall (lower level) of the William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center. Use the online signup sheet to reserve this room for use for press interviews at specific dates and times.

Press Conference Schedule, Topics & Speakers

News briefings will be held each morning and afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, 9-10 June, and one in the morning on Wednesday, 11 June. The briefings will be held in Ballroom E, Level 3 of the Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center. The press conference room will be equipped with a sound system and internet connectivity. Note that morning and afternoon briefings occur in parallel with morning and afternoon oral science sessions. 

Following is the press-conference program, which remains subject to change (all times are AKDT = UTC − 8 hours):

Briefing audio, slides, and video will be available via a Zoom webinar, where registered journalists will be able to ask questions of the presenters via text chat with an on-site press officer. The briefings will also be livestreamed to the AAS Press Office YouTube channel, where attendees will be able to view the stream but not ask questions. (See below.)

In [square brackets] under the speakers’ names are the abstract or session numbers on which their presentations are based. Next to the session number, the designation IP or V indicates whether the speaker will be presenting their press briefing in person or virtually, respectively.

All findings are embargoed until the time of presentation at the meeting. “Time of presentation” means the start time of the oral or poster session in which the paper will be given, or the start time of the corresponding press conference (if any), whichever comes first. See the complete AAS embargo policy for more information.

Note: All new discoveries are subject to confirmation by independent teams of scientists. Inclusion here does not imply endorsement by the American Astronomical Society. The AAS does not endorse individual scientific results.

Monday, 9 June 2025, 10:15 am AKDT
Cosmic Accelerators and Active Black Holes (Briefing video)

Multi-Messenger Probe of Galactic PeVatrons
Shuo Zhang (Michigan State University)
[230.07] | IP | Press release
 
Where Giants Collide: Particle Acceleration in the Universe's Largest Structures
Kamlesh Rajpurohit (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)
[328.05] | IP | Press release
 
Chandra Reveals Two Distant Quasars Transforming Universe's First Light into High-Energy X-Ray Jets
Jaya Maithil (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)
[410.07] | IP | Press release
 
Multi-Phase Shocks and Feedback in a Nearby Spiral Galaxy Revealed by JWST Imaging
Travis Fischer (Space Telescope Science Institute)
[142.01] | IP

Monday, 9 June 2025, 2:15 pm AKDT
From Molecules to Molecular Clouds: Discoveries in the Milky Way (Briefing video)

If You Like It Put More Rings on It: Discovery of Interstellar Cyanocoronene
Gabi Wenzel (MIT/Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)
[330.05] | IP | Press release
 
Discovery of the Elusive Radio Burst Indicators of Massive Eruptions in a Young Active Star
Atul Mohan (NASA-GSFC/The Catholic University of America)
[324.05] | IP | Press release
 
The Spotty Surface of the Blue Giant Xi Persei
Tahina Ramiaramanantsoa (Arizona State University)
[205.05] | IP

A Map of the Outer Gas Disk of the Galaxy with Direct Distances from Young Stars
Peter Craig (Michigan State University)
[144.17] | V | Press release
 
The SOFIA Mid-Infrared Giant H II Region Survey: Galactic Center
Wanggi Lim (Caltech/IPAC)
[414.06] | IP | Press release

Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 10:15 am AKDT
Planets, Exoplanets, and Brown Dwarfs (Briefing video)

Revealing the Classical Uranian Satellites in Ultraviolet
Christian Soto (Space Telescope Science Institute)
[202.01] | IP | Press release
 
Off-Polar Hint: Hottest-Star Sub-Saturn Obliquity
Emma Dugan (Indiana University)
[229.06] | IP
 
JWST Coronagraphic Images of 14 Her c: a Cold Giant Planet in a Dynamically Hot, Multi-Planet System
William Balmer (Johns Hopkins University) & Mark Giovinazzi (Amherst College)
[116.02] | IP | Press release
 
Detailed JWST Observations of Multi-Planet System Around a Sun-Like Star
Kielan Hoch (Space Telescope Science Institute)
[413.03] | IP | Press release

Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 2:15 pm AKDT
New Views and Insights into the Sun and Its Surroundings (Briefing video)

Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH): Mission Overview and First Light
Craig DeForest (Southwest Research Institute)
[126.01] | IP | SwRI press release | NASA press release
 
The Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX): First Light
Nicholeen Viall (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
[111.07] | IP | Press release
 
Cracking the Solar Code: Hybrid Machine Learning for Predicting Hemispheric Bursts and Cycle Trends
Juie Shetye (New Mexico State U. & Armagh Observatory and Planetarium) and Mausumi Dikpati (High Altitude Observatory/NSF-NCAR)
[210.05] | IP
 
A Near-Real-Time Data-Assimilative Model of the Solar Corona
Jon Linker (Predictive Science Inc.)
[323.03] | IP

Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 10:15 am AKDT
Recent and Upcoming Discoveries in the Broader Universe (Briefing video)

Inner Tail Gas Asymmetries and Fallback in a Jellyfish Galaxy
Harrison Souchereau (Yale University)
[209.11] | IP | Press release
 
In the Belly of the Beast: Massive Clump Formation in the Hearts of Major Mergers
Sean Linden (University of Arizona)
[424.03] | IP | Press release
 
UNCOVERing the Drivers of Reionization with JWST
Isak Wold (NASA/The Catholic University of America)
[424.05] | IP | Press release
 
The "Dark-Matter Dominated" Galaxy Segue 1 Modeled with a Black Hole and No Dark Halo
Nathaniel Lujan (The University of Texas San Antonio)
[328.03] | IP | Press release
 
First Light with the SPHEREx Observatory
Phillip Korngut (Caltech)
[214.02] | IP

Press Conference Livestreams

Journalists (and anyone else) unable to attend the meeting in person may tune in to our livestreamed briefings via one of two methods:

  1. Meeting registrants may access the livestreams via Zoom webinar links that will be sent out to registered journalists in advance of the meeting. Viewers who join the livestreams via these links will be able to ask questions via a Q&A chat box.
  2. Non-registrants may access the livestreams via the AAS Press Office YouTube channel. Viewers here will not be able to ask questions.

After the meeting, archived webcasts will be freely available via our online archive, which links to the individual briefing videos on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel.

Press Event at UAA Planetarium & Visualization Theater

Press registrants will have the opportunity to join for a special event during AAS 246: a visit to the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Planetarium & Visualization Theater for a show and a special presentation for the media given by UAA professor Travis Rector. The event will be held at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, 11 June; more information will be posted in the press office onsite and emailed to those who have expressed interest. To help us gauge interest in this tour, please fill out the online expression of interest form.

Additional Program Highlights

Please see the 1st Media Advisory for a list of additional program highlights at AAS 246 that may be of interest to journalists. 

For additional information, visit the AAS 246 Block Schedule, which can be filtered by session type to identify specific events of interest like Plenaries, Town Halls, or Attendee Events.

AAS on Social Media

During the meeting, the AAS Press Office will post announcements of interest to reporters on Bluesky at @press.aas.org and on X/Twitter at @AAS_Press. Other AAS Bluesky handles include @aas.org, @policy.aas.org, and @aasnova.org; other AAS X/Twitter handles include @AAS_Office, @AAS_Policy, @AAS_Publishing, and @AASNova. Journalists (and scientists) posting from the meeting are encouraged to use the hashtag #aas246.

A Note on Visas and Travel Restrictions to the United States

If you are an international traveler, you are responsible for determining any current travel restrictions and visa requirements that apply to you. Additional information is available from the US State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you need a letter for a visa application certifying that you are registered for the meeting, please request your complimentary press registration as soon as possible; only after you complete it can the AAS Press Office send you such a letter.

AAS Press List

If you don't already receive press releases by email from the AAS Press Office, you should sign up now to guarantee that you receive future meeting advisories as well as other important announcements. To sign up for the AAS Press List at no charge, please fill out and submit the form you'll find linked from our Join the AAS Press List page. With few exceptions, only accredited journalists and PIOs are eligible to receive press releases from the AAS, as described on our press-credentials page.

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