248th meeting

Press Information

248
Pasadena, California
248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Pasadena, California
14 – 18 June 2026
Links

8 June 2026

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 Pasadena, California, from 14 to 18 June 2026 for the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This joint conference with the AAS Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) and High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) 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: #aas248.

The venue for this summer's AAS meeting is the Pasadena Convention Center. 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 Pasadena; 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

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. 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 public information officers (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.

See our list of current press registrants.

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 office staff:

AAS 248 Astrobites Media Intern Niloofar Sharei will also assist in the press office.

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 Conference Schedule, Topics & Speakers

News briefings will be held in Ballroom H of the Pasadena Convention Center each morning and afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, 15-16 June, and one in the morning on Wednesday, 17 June. Wednesday afternoon will feature a live recording of Griffith Observatory's public show All Space Considered. 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 PDT = UTC − 7 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, 15 June 2026, 10:15 am PDT
The Science of Stellar Remnants

Boron and Beryllium as Unlikely Probes of Extrasolar Planets
Ben Zuckerman (University of California, Los Angeles)
[208.02] | IP

White Dwarf Kicks via Episodic Mass Ejection from Red Giant Stars
Jim Fuller (Caltech)
[405.06] | IP

Probing Intrabinary Material in a New Spider Millisecond Pulsar
Rebecca Kyer (Michigan State University)
[323.03] | IP

NASA’s Chandra Finds Unexpected Fireworks in Aftermath of Stellar Explosions
Andrea Prestwich (Catholic University of America / NASA Goddard SFC), Roy Kilgard (Wesleyan University), and Zoe Hoiland (Vassar College)
[204.06] | IP

Monday, 15 June 2026, 2:15 pm PDT
Variable, Windy, and Disruptive: The Behavior of Supermassive Black Holes

Chandra Tracks the Evolving Jet from Messier 87’s Black Hole
Camille Poitras (Laval University)
[211.01] | IP

Watching a Black Hole Wind Grow: Chandra and Hubble Reveal the Early Stages of Galaxy Feedback
Anna Trindade Falcao (NASA Goddard SFC)
[211.03] | IP
 
XRISM Reveals Changing Accretion-Driven Winds in a Nearby Active Galaxy
Xin Xiang (University of Michigan)
[211.04] | IP

NuSTAR Reveals a Significantly Variable Active Galactic Nucleus Corona
Xiurui Zhao (Caltech)
[309.06] | IP

New Surprises from Radio Observations of Tidal Disruption Event Outflows
Kate Alexander (University of Arizona)
[107.04] | IP

Tuesday, 16 June 2026, 10:15 am PDT
Our Changing Galaxy and the Skies We See

Resolving the Super to Subsonic Gas Transition in the Galactic Center for the First Time
Rojita Buddhacharya (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian; Liverpool John Moores University)
[413.06] | IP

The Multi-Age Stellar Populations of Terzan 5 as Revealed by JWST
R. Michael Rich (University of California, Los Angeles)
[310.01] | IP

Sub-Day Periodic Variability of Two Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae
Gaoyang Du (Dalian University of Technology)
[329.07] | IP

Artificial Light at Night Significantly Degrades the Value of Public Lands
Jordan Smith (Utah State University)
[413.04] | IP

Tuesday, 16 June 2026, 2:15 pm PDT
Fire and Ice in Planetary Systems Near and Far

Diagnosing the Solids in Io’s Volcanic Plumes
Neal Turner (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech)
[105.05] | IP
 
Radar Observations of Europa from 2011 to 2024 Reveal New Insights into Its Icy Surface
Tunhui Xie (University of California, Los Angeles)
[312.04] | IP

Characterization of Interstellar Asteroid 3I/ATLAS During Its Encounter with the Solar System
Bryce Bolin (Eureka Scientific)
[312.01] | IP

Flash-Heating a Roasted Planet: JWST Watches an Extreme Exoplanet Heat Up
Tiffany Kataria (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech)
[208.04] | IP

Are All Hot Jupiters Tidally Synchronized? Exploring the Mysterious Case of CoRoT-2b
Aurora Kesseli (IPAC/Caltech)
[208.05] | IP

Wednesday, 17 June 2026, 10:15 am PDT
Stars Reshaping Galaxies: Clusters, Feedback, and Explosive Aftermaths

A New Era of Galaxy Cluster Analysis at Cosmic Noon: JWST’s View of a Distant Galaxy Cluster
Kyle Finner (IPAC/Caltech)
[407.01] | IP

Hidden Gems in the Hearts of Nearby Galaxies: Evolution of Young Massive Star Clusters in Circumnuclear Rings
Sajia Shahrin Neha (University of Kentucky)
[104.02] | IP

Dusty and Over-Pressured: Measuring Stellar Feedback in the Closest Luminous Infrared Galaxy
Deb/Debosmita Pathak (The Ohio State University/IPAC)
[404.04] | IP

Unveiling the First Binary-System Supernovae
Miltiadis Michailidis (Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)/Stanford University/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
[415.02] | IP

Wednesday, 17 June 2026, 2:15 pm PDT

Join us for a live recording of Griffith Observatory's public show All Space Considered! The crew will set up in the press conference room to present their popular monthly space news program, and all meeting attendees are welcome to attend and serve as a live audience to the show. The program will highlight Black Space Week and astronomy news from throughout the conference, featuring live interviews of the astronomers.

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 Events

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.

Additional Program Highlights

Please see the 1st Media Advisory for a list of additional program highlights at AAS 248 that may be of interest to journalists.

For additional information, visit the AAS 248 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. Journalists (and scientists) posting from the meeting are encouraged to use the hashtag #aas248.

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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