The James Webb Space Telescope Science Working Group has developed the Science Requirements Document in order to describe the scientific objectives for the JWST mission and the performance capabilities necessary to meet them. The primary objectives fall into four science themes that span many orders of magnitude in time, space, and size.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is also a key element in NASA's Origins program which has the goal of understanding the formation of galaxies, stars, planets and ultimately, life. The basic science objectives of JWST are also described in Gardner et al.
WebbTelescope gives a "down-to-earth" description of JWST, including the advantages of observing in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Numerous videos, animations, and education material are available for download.
A more extended description can be found at the JWST Science Goals web pages of the Goddard JWST Project Center.
The Science Working Group (SWG) is a committee appointed by NASA Headquarters to provide guidance on the science goals and capabilities of JWST. The JWST Project office holds the official SWG Charter (PDF).
The SWG consists of Ex Officio representatives of the three space agencies, the Lead Investigators of the science instruments and six competitively selected Interdisciplinary Scientists. This link provides the full list of SWG members. To send questions or comments to the Webb SWG, please contact Massimo Stiavelli.
The SWG was preceded by the Ad hoc SWG (1997-2000) and the Interim SWG (2000-2001). These links provide Charters, Memberships, Meeting notes and other documents produced. The ASWG has been especially instrumental in creating the Design Reference Mission (DRM), a sample of core science programs used to test NGST designs.
Access to SWG members pages (password required).