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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), planned for operation in about five years, will have the capability to investigate - and answer - some of the most challenging questions in astronomy. Although motivated and designed to study the very early Universe, the performance of the observatory's instruments over a very wide wavelength range will allow the world's scientific community unequaled ability to study cosmic phenomena as diverse as small bodies in the Solar System and the formation of galaxies.
As part of preparation to use JWST, a conference was held in Tucson, Arizona in 2007 that brought together astronomers from around the world to discuss the mission, other major facilities that will operate in the coming decade, and major scientific goals for them. This book is a compilation of those presentations by some of the leading researchers from all branches of astronomy. This book also includes a "pre-history" of JWST, describing the lengthy process and some of the key individuals that initiated early work on the concepts that would evolve to become the premier space observatory of the next decade.
List of contents
The James Webb Space Telescope.- Beyond the Hubble Space Telescope: Early Development of the Next Generation Space Telescope.- The Kuiper Belt and Other Debris Disks.- The Future of Ultracool Dwarf Science with JWST.- Transiting Exoplanets with JWST.- The Unsolved Problem of Star Formation: Dusty Dense Cores and the Origin of Stellar Masses.- Accretion Disks Before (?) the Main Planet Formation Phase.- Astrochemistry of Dense Protostellar and Protoplanetary Environments.- Extreme Star Formation.- Prospects for Studies of Stellar Evolution and Stellar Death in the JWST Era.- Origin and Evolution of the Interstellar Medium.- Astrophysics in the Next Decade: The Evolution of Galaxies.- The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Black Holes: Current Status and Future Prospects.- The Intergalactic Medium at High Redshifts.- Observing the First Stars and Black Holes.- Baryons: What,When and Where?.- Observational Constraints of Reionization History in the JWST Era.- The Frontier of Reionization: Theory and Forthcoming Observations.
About the author
Dr. Stiavelli obtained his PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in 1986. He has been a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University and a fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Garching. He has held positions at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (1992-1995), at the §European Space Agency in Baltimore (1995-2000), and at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore where he currently has the position of James Webb Space T elescope Project Scientist. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of the International Astronomical Union. He has chaired or served on several NASA committees and is a member of the Science Working Group of the James Webb Space Telescope. Stiavelli has observing experience at the major ground based observatories (Mauna Kea, ESO La Silla, ESO Paranal, KPNO, La Palma, Apache Point) and with every imaging instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. He has authored or coauthored 83 research papers published in professional journals and 148 technical reports and other publications.
Summary
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), planned for operation in about five years, will have the capability to investigate – and answer – some of the most challenging questions in astronomy. Although motivated and designed to study the very early Universe, the performance of the observatory’s instruments over a very wide wavelength range will allow the world’s scientific community unequaled ability to study cosmic phenomena as diverse as small bodies in the Solar System and the formation of galaxies.
As part of preparation to use JWST, a conference was held in Tucson, Arizona in 2007 that brought together astronomers from around the world to discuss the mission, other major facilities that will operate in the coming decade, and major scientific goals for them. This book is a compilation of those presentations by some of the leading researchers from all branches of astronomy. This book also includes a “pre-history” of JWST, describing the lengthy process and some of the key individuals that initiated early work on the concepts that would evolve to become the premier space observatory of the next decade.
