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Potential Science with JWST

In the course of working on the development of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Science Working Group and other scientists have written a variety of white papers describing science programs that might be accomplished with JWST. Several of these are listed below. Astronomers interested in learning more will find these papers a good place to start.

These white papers reflect the thoughts and advice of the Science Working Group (SWG) and other project scientists on the capabilities to build into the JWST system. They do not imply what science must be carried out with JWST, since nearly all of the observing time on the observatory will be subject to open competitions. There are, of course, many other discussions of potential JWST science in the refereed literature.

Title Author Publication Date
Astro 2020 White Paper: Direct Imaging and Spectroscopy of Exoplanets with JWST Beichman et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: Characterizing Transiting Exoplanets with JWST Guaranteed Time and ERS Observations Greene et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: Solar System Science with JWST Hammel et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: Comparing Key Compositional Indicators in Jupiter with Those in Extra-solar Giant Planets Lunine et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: Infrared Stellar Populations: Probing the Beginning and the End Meixner et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: JWST GTO/ERS Deep Surveys Reike et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: JWST/MIRI Surveys in GOODS-S Rieke et al. March 11, 2019
Astro 2020 White Paper: On the Observability of Individual Population III Stars and Their Stellar-mass Black Hole Accretion Disks through Cluster Caustic Transits Windhorst et al. March 11, 2019
Observations of Transiting Exoplanets with the JWST Beichman et al. November 6, 2014
Solar System Observations with JWST Norwood et al. March 24, 2014
Transiting Exoplanet Simulations with the James Webb Space Telescope Batalha et al. December 20, 2013
James Webb Space Telescope Project: Science Requirements Document Gardner et al. July 10, 2012
Frontier Science Opportunities with JWST Kalirai June 8, 2011
Comparative Planetology: Transiting Exoplanet Science with JWST Clampin et al. February 13, 2009
James Webb Space Telescope Studies of Dark Energy Gardner et al. March 18, 2010
JWST Planetary Observations within the Solar System Lunine et al. March 9, 2010
Scientific Role of the James Webb Space Telescope in “New Worlds, New Horizons” Hammel et al. September 1, 2010
First Light and Reionization: Open Questions in the Post-JWST Era Stiavelli et al. February 14, 2009
Galaxies Across Cosmic Time with JWST Windhorst et al. February 13, 2009
The Scientific Capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope Gardner et al. February 14, 2009
Stellar Populations with JWST: The Beginning and the End Meixner et al. February 13, 2009
JWST Study of Planetary Systems and Solar System Objects Sonneborn et al. February 13, 2009
Studying Resolved Stellar Populations with the James Webb Space Telescope Brown et al. October 22, 2008
Coronagraphic Detection of Exosolar Planets with JWST Clampin et al. April 17, 2007
Detection of Planetary Transits with the James Webb Space Telescope Clampin et al. April 2, 2007
A Strategy To Study First Light with JWST Stiavelli et al. May 10, 2007
Added JWST Science Cases for the Timeframe 2012-2015 Calzetti et al. June 24, 2005
Astrobiology and JWST Seager et al. March 30, 2004
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The NASA James Webb Space Telescope, developed in partnership with ESA and CSA, is operated by AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute.