The JWST Early Release Science Program for the Direct Imaging & Spectroscopy of Exoplanetary Systems
Abstract
The direct characterization of exoplanetary systems with high contrast imaging is among the highest priorities for the broader exoplanet community. As large space missions will be necessary for detecting and characterizing exo-Earth twins, developing the techniques and technology for direct imaging of exoplanets is a driving focus for the community. For the first time, JWST will directly observe extrasolar planets at mid-infrared wavelengths beyond 5m, deliver detailed spectroscopy revealing much more precise chemical abundances and atmospheric conditions, and provide sensitivity to analogs of our solar system ice-giant planets at wide orbital separations, an entirely new class of exoplanet. However, in order to maximise the scientific output over the lifetime of the mission, an exquisite understanding of the instrumental performance of JWST is needed as early in the mission as possible. In this paper, we describe our 55-hour Early Release Science Program that will utilize all four JWST instruments to extend the characterisation of planetary mass companions to 15m as well as image a circumstellar disk in the mid-infrared with unprecedented sensitivity. Our program will also assess the performance of the observatory in the key modes expected to be commonly used for exoplanet direct imaging and spectroscopy, optimize data calibration and processing, and generate representative datasets that will enable a broad user base to effectively plan for general observing programs in future cycles.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.12972,
title = {The JWST Early Release Science Program for the Direct Imaging & Spectroscopy of Exoplanetary Systems},
author = {Sasha Hinkley and Aarynn L. Carter and Shrishmoy Ray and Andrew Skemer and Beth Biller and Elodie Choquet and Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer and Stephanie Sallum and Brittany Miles and Niall Whiteford and Polychronis Patapis and Marshall D. Perrin and Laurent Pueyo and Glenn Schneider and Karl Stapelfeldt and Jason Wang and Kimberly Ward-Duong and Brendan P. Bowler and Anthony Boccaletti and Julien H. Girard and Dean Hines and Paul Kalas and Jens Kammerer and Pierre Kervella and Jarron Leisenring and Eric Pantin and Yifan Zhou and Michael Meyer and Michael C. Liu and Mickael Bonnefoy and Thayne Currie and Michael McElwain and Stanimir Metchev and Mark Wyatt and Olivier Absil and Jea Adams and Travis Barman and Isabelle Baraffe and Mariangela Bonavita and Mark Booth and Marta Bryan and Gael Chauvin and Christine Chen and Camilla Danielski and Matthew De Furio and Samuel M. Factor and Jonathan J. Fortney and Carol Grady and Alexandra Greenbaum and Thomas Henning and Markus Janson and Grant Kennedy and Matthew Kenworthy and Adam Kraus and Masayuki Kuzuhara and Pierre-Olivier Lagage and Anne-Marie Lagrange and Ralf Launhardt and Cecilia Lazzoni and James Lloyd and Sebastian Marino and Mark Marley and Raquel Martinez and Christian Marois and Brenda Matthews and Elisabeth C. Matthews and Dimitri Mawet and Mark Phillips and Simon Petrus and Sascha P. Quanz and Andreas Quirrenbach and Julien Rameau and Isabel Rebollido and Emily Rickman and Matthias Samland and B. Sargent and Joshua E. Schlieder and Anand Sivaramakrishnan and Jordan M. Stone and Motohide Tamura and Pascal Tremblin and Taichi Uyama and Malavika Vasist and Arthur Vigan and Kevin Wagner and Marie Ygouf},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.12972},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
21 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for Publication in PASP