Opening a New Frontier in Transient Science with the James Webb Space Telescope

Speaker: Justin Pierel (STScI)

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we have entered a new era of transient discovery and understanding. In a relatively short time JWST has expanded our view of the transient universe well beyond the limits of even the Hubble Space Telescope, including hundreds of supernovae extending to when the universe was less than 15% its current age. The JWST supernova sample now includes the most distant Type Ia supernovae (used for cosmological measurements) yet discovered, three supernovae behind massive gravitational lenses, and a wide variety of other supernova types from previously unexplored phase of the transient universe. Looking ahead, these supernovae give us a glimpse at what we can expect from the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will revolutionize the discovery of distant stellar explosions.