Program News and Announcements

1 September 2023

Working Group on HST and JWST Time-Domain Strategies Seeks Input

Time domain astronomy was highlighted as a key science area for the 2020s in the Astro2020 Decadal Review. Both the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have the potential to make significant scientific contributions in probing the variable universe at moderate and longer timescales.

The Space Telescope Science Institute’s Interim Director, Nancy Levenson, has constituted a Long-Term Monitoring Working Group (WG) to provide advice and recommendations on how HST and JWST observations can be leveraged in support of these investigations.

The WG is charged with providing guidance on optimal strategies for maximizing the scientific return from HST and JWST time-domain observations. In particular, the Working Group will address the following tasks:

• Solicit input from the community on key science areas that can exploit long time-baseline observations, based either on past observations or laying the foundation for future investigations;
• Identify science themes that should be prioritized for exploration by future General Observer programs and/or Archival analyses;
• Provide advice on the optimal timing for substantive follow-up observations and suggest mechanisms for enabling those observations;
• Comment on the appropriate scale of resources likely required to support those programs;
• Develop a specific concept for an observing program that will utilize JWST’s imaging and spectroscopic capabilities to probe transient phenomena at high redshift, with the goal of starting implementation of the program in JWST Cycle 2.

By forming this Working Group, STScI aims to ensure that many voices are heard in the formulation of the appropriate priorities for time domain science with HST and JWST, with the goal of maximizing the science return and legacy value of the observations and the resultant data products.

The committee will summarize their conclusions in a report to the Director and presentations to the Space Telescope Users Committee (STUC) and the JWST Users Committee (JSTUC). Interim recommendations will be presented in the Fall of 2023, with the final report due by January 2024.

The WG encourages input from the community either by completing this short, on-line survey and/or in the form of short contributions submitted to STScI by Friday, 8 September 2023. These should be in PDF format and ideally limited to 1 page (+ figures/references), but any reasonable length will be accepted. Contributions do not need to be anonymized, and multiple co-authors are welcome. Submissions will guide the working group recommendations, but will not be shared publicly. PDF contributions should be e-mailed to wg-longterm@stsci.edu.

Submissions should explicitly specify which of these two topics is being addressed: Long time baseline science opportunities; or JWST Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) for high-redshift transients.

In all cases, in addition to the science, we are soliciting input about the observational resources that would be required, advice about timing and sky location for the observations, and suggestions for mechanisms to promote this science in the broad portfolio of HST and JWST programs.

The WG held a virtual Town Hall on 17 August 2023, where WG members gave an overview of their activities, addressed questions from attendees, and highlighted how members of the community can provide their feedback on how HST and JWST observations should best be leveraged to monitor photometric, spectroscopic and astrometric variations. You can view the Town Hall recording, see the slides [PDF], or read the Frequently Asked Questions.