21 May 2026

Contacts:

Susanna Kohler
AAS Press Officer
+1 202-328-2010 x127

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

Media Invited to 248th AAS Meeting in Pasadena, California, in June

Astronomers and affiliates will gather in Pasadena, California, this June for the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). From 14 to 18 June 2026, astronomers, students, educators, and journalists will come together at the Pasadena Convention Center for a full schedule of scientific presentations, community-building workshops, town halls, career sessions, and more. Social media hashtag: #aas248.

The AAS offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and public-information officers (PIOs), as explained below. AAS 248 will feature both an in-person press registration option and a virtual press registration option that will allow streaming access for the press conferences only. In-person press registrants at AAS 248 will also be able to participate in a tour to Griffith Observatory on Thursday, 18 June; see below for details.

AAS 248 Meeting Links

• Home Page
• Travel & Lodging Information
• Press Information

Press Registration

AAS 248 will be an in-person meeting only; there will be no virtual attendance option for the general meeting. The press conferences, however, can be attended both in person and virtually via Zoom.

Press registration deadline: Wednesday, 10 June 2026. After this date, we will be unable to process your press registration to attend the meeting. We strongly advise you register in advance to avoid last-minute complications; please send your email request to [email protected] as soon as you know you’re attending the meeting. Full instructions and registration links are available on the AAS 248 press information page.

In-Person Press Attendance:

The AAS offers complimentary in-person meeting registration to bona fide working journalists and PIOs. 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 248 IN-PERSON 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 248 registration page.

Virtual Press Attendance (press conferences only):

If you do not plan to be on-site in Pasadena but you would like to attend the press conferences virtually, contact the AAS Press Office with your name and media affiliation (or “freelance” if applicable); please specify "AAS 248 VIRTUAL press conference attendance" in the subject line. You will be added to a virtual press conference attendance list and will be sent the press conference schedule and Zoom webinar links in advance of the meeting.

Press Facilities

The AAS will operate a press office in room 208 at the Pasadena Convention Center, with working space, printer/photocopier, power strips, and internet connectivity for reporters and PIOs.

Press conferences will be hosted daily Monday – Wednesday, 15–17 June, to showcase some of the most exciting recent astronomical discoveries. The briefings will be held on-site and live-streamed on Zoom for virtual press conference viewers. They will also be live-streamed on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel (where you will not be able to ask questions; to do that, you will need to participate via Zoom) and archived there.

Press conferences will be held in Ballroom H of the Pasadena Convention Center. Briefing schedule, topics, and speakers will be announced via another media advisory closer to the meeting date; as always, the press program will be subject to change.

There will be no dedicated press interview space at AAS 248; if you’re in need of space, please contact [email protected] to coordinate use of the press conference room outside of press conference hours.

Press Events

Press Tour

On Thursday, 18 June, press registrants will have the opportunity to take part in an exclusive media visit to Griffith Observatory, a pivotal connection point between astronomy and the public. Tour participants will have the opportunity to learn about the observatory and its programs, explore the interface between astronomy research and public science engagement, and play! We'll have time to interact with exhibits, visit the Zeiss telescope dome, conduct coelostat and solar telescope viewing, and attend a (free!) planetarium show.

Tour participants will need to arrange their own transportation to the Observatory, which is a ~25-minute ride from the Convention Center. To register for the tour, please fill out the online signup form. Additional details will be sent to registrants at a later date.

All Space Considered Recording

Ever wanted to sit in on the live recording of a professionally produced, public-facing astronomy program? During the meeting, Griffith Observatory will present a live version of its monthly public program All Space Considered at AAS 248 in the press conference room. The program will highlight Black Space Week and several of the press releases from the meeting, with live interviews of the astronomers. All attendees are welcome to attend in the audience!

Program Points of Interest

Division Meetings

This summer's AAS meeting will be jointly held with the AAS’s High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) and Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD). Carolyn Kierans (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) will give the HEAD Early Career Prize Lecture on Tuesday on next-generation MeV telescopes. The HEAD meeting will include a number of Special Sessions on topics like current and future X-ray missions, black hole spin, and results from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4b observing run searching for gravitational wave signals. Carolyn Kuranz (University of Michigan) will give the LAD plenary lecture on Wednesday on plasma astrophysics. The LAD meeting will also feature Special Sessions on ices and the interstellar medium, integration of atomic theory with laboratory astrophysics, and next-generation laboratory plasma diagnostics.

Prize Lectures, Invited Talks, and Special Guests

AAS 248 will open on Monday morning, 15 June, with a special welcome from Congresswoman Judy Chu, in whose home district we will be meeting. Congresswoman Chu is the co-chair of the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus and a vocal advocate for the astronomical and planetary sciences in Congress.

The meeting will offer 13 prize and invited talks by distinguished astronomers. Following Chu's welcome, the AAS 248 will open with the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture, which will be presented by Richard Teague (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on the dynamics of planet formation.

In addition to the talks already listed, several other AAS and Division award winners will give prize lectures at the conference. We’ll hear from Kyle Kremer (UC San Diego), who will give the Helen B. Warner Prize lecture on globular clusters as astronomical laboratories of gravitational wave and electromagnetic transients. And the Solar Physics Division's Hale Prize lecture will be given by Yi-Ming Wang (Naval Research Laboratory) on the Sun as a laboratory for astrophysical magnetic fields.

In addition, there will be a host of invited plenaries by distinguished speakers. On Monday, we'll hear from Sanmi Koyejo (Stanford University) in a policy plenary on what artificial intelligence can get wrong and why astronomers are the fix. In addition, Mario Juric (University of Washington) will present early results from the Rubin Observatory, and Esra Bulbul (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics) will discuss how eROSITA has allowed us to probe cosmology and baryons across scales. Tuesday will feature David Jewitt (UC Los Angeles) providing a sweeping review of the population of interstellar interlopers. On Wednesday, Eliza Kempton (University of Chicago) will discuss sub-Neptune and super-Earth atmospheres in the JWST era, George Helou (Caltech/IPAC) will talk about observing the infrared sky, and Cara Battersby (University of Connecticut) will provide insight into our galaxy's dynamic center. On Thursday, Ian Roederer (North Carolina State University) will present on the ultraviolet path to the origin of the elements.

Town Halls, Special Sessions, Splinter Meetings

Further programming includes Town Hall meetings for NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Space Telescope Science Institute, and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Additionally, dozens of Special Sessions and Splinter Meetings will include LAD and HEAD themes as well as topics like “AI-Driven Science in the Survey Era," "Simulated Universes for Precision Cosmology," "Foundations for Discovery: A Coordinated Fleet Approach to NASA Astrophysics." Other Special Sessions focus on current and upcoming missions like the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Deep Synoptic Array, the Probe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA), and the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

A Note on Visas and Restrictions for Travel to the United States

Visa requirements for international travelers to the USA have become more stringent, and travel restrictions and measures may be in place for US citizens and international citizens entering the country. If you are an international traveler, you are responsible for determining the current travel restrictions and visa requirements that apply to you. Additional information is available from the US State Department. 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.