AAS 230 Meeting-in-a-Meeting: Preparing for JWST Observations

One of the great things about the AAS summer meetings is the opportunity to attend member-organized Meeting-in-a-Meeting (MiM) “mini-conferences.” Join us at the upcoming meeting in Austin for the Preparing for JWST Observations MiM.

This MiM will introduce the projects to be tackled by teams with guaranteed observing time on the James Webb Space Telescope, whose long-awaited debut is scheduled for late next year. Eric Smith (NASA Headquarters) has organized six 90-minute oral sessions that run from the afternoon of Monday, 5 June, through the morning of Thursday, 8 June. A JWST Proposal Planning Workshop and complementary poster session round out the MiM programming.

While JWST will surely have a dramatic impact on nearly every area of astronomy, this MiM focuses on a handful of particularly exciting topics, such as “first light” and the assembly of galaxies, the birth of stars, and protoplanetary systems, and the inner Solar System and beyond, including exoplanets, debris disks, and brown dwarfs. The purpose of the JWST MiM is not just “show and tell.” Yes, nearly 20 guaranteed-time observers will describe turning their science into JWST observing programs, but part of their aim is to explain how to use the JWST proposal planning tool. Later this year, the first call for proposals will go out for JWST general observers. If you want to get started learning how to prepare a successful JWST observing program, you definitely want to attend as many of the JWST MiM sessions as you can.

Check out the full line-up and abstracts for each session in the online meeting program.