EVENTS

The 241^st American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting will include updates on the status of the observatory, an exhibit booth, hyperwall talks, town halls, and splinter sessions.

Nearby Galaxies under a New Light with Roman (Splinter Meeting)

Monday, January 9, 2023
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

The Roman Space Telescope will provide HST-like spatial resolution in the optical and near-infrared, but with a field of view 100 times larger than HST. Even for single pointings, this provides data sets comparable to large survey projects with previous generation space-based observatories. Roman's large field-of-view will also quickly map the most nearby galaxies with resolved stars. Its superb astrometric capabilities will allow us to measure galaxy growth across space and time with unprecedented detail. Complementary, studies that map stellar populations with Roman in the most nearby galaxies will teach us valuable lessons to connect to observations and simulations of the early Universe. ALMA and JWST studies of galaxies probe the build-up of stellar mass at high redshift and, in complement, Roman will provide statistically significant samples to study how efficient metal production is during the most vigorous stages of galactic growth. The goal of this session is to bring together expertise from the local and more distant Universe to articulate how studies of the expanding horizon of the nearby Universe, with Roman, can be connected to our understanding of the most distant objects.

STScI Town Hall

Tuesday, January 10, 2023
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) serves the astronomical community through the operation of multiple NASA flagship missions including the Hubble, Webb, and Roman Space Telescopes, the development of advanced data and science archives, including Kepler and TESS, and the dissemination of astronomical information to the broadest public audiences. Offering this breadth of resources to help the scientific community advance, STScI provides support and the primary user interface for Hubble, Webb and Roman. STScI will contribute to a wide range of workshops, science sessions, splinter meetings, and exhibits throughout the meeting.

The STScI Town Hall will serve as the center piece for our AAS 241 presence. We will report on the status of our existing and upcoming missions and describe new opportunities designed to advance astrophysics through the 2020s. The presenters will include STScI science leads and community representatives. We will highlight key initiatives associated with our major missions. We will include time for discussion to receive community input regarding new capabilities and to answer questions about our activities in the coming year.

Nancy Grace Roman Town Hall

Tuesday, January 10, 2023
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as WFIRST) is a NASA flagship mission planned for launch in the mid 2020s. The Roman Space Telescope will perform breakthrough science in dark energy cosmology, exoplanet microlensing, and NIR sky surveys with its Wide Field Instrument. Roman will also feature the Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), a technology demonstration that will directly image and take spectra of exoplanetary systems using several novel technologies together for the first time in space. This session will cover the status of the project and upcoming opportunities for community involvement in planning and executing the science and technology demonstration aspects of Roman.

Starting Now: Community-Led Definition of the Roman Core Community Surveys (Splinter Meeting)

Wednesday, January 11, 2023
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will have a large field of view (0.28 sq deg), Hubble-like sensitivity and resolution, and blistering survey speeds: the Roman Space Telescope will be capable of performing the equivalent of Hubble's largest surveys roughly 1000 times faster. Roman's WFI observing program will include both Core Community Surveys and General Astrophysics surveys, defined by a combination of a community-led process and traditional peer-reviewed calls for proposals, respectively. The Core Community Surveys (CCSs) will include a High Latitude Wide Area survey, a High Latitude Time Domain survey, and a Galactic Bulge Time Domain survey. In addition to addressing the Roman Mission's science requirements related to cosmology and exoplanet demographics, the data from the CCSs will enable a host of general astrophysical investigations.

The Roman Mission is intent on engaging the broad astronomical community in defining the CCSs in a way that will maximize their expansive scientific impact. This effort is starting now, with a call for white papers from the community planned for release in late 2022. The goal of the white paper call is to solicit from the community descriptions of specific scientific investigations that can be achieved with the CCSs, the observational strategies that will enable these investigations to be performed with a given CCS, and the figures of merit that can be used to assess whether an observational strategy will enable a particular investigation. The purpose of this special session is to provide attendees the information they need to write effective white papers, and to receive feedback from attendees on the planned community process for defining the CCSs. The session will include updates on the status of the Mission relevant to defining the core surveys, an overview of the community-driven process for defining the CCSs, a discussion of the observational parameter spaces under consideration for each CCS, a question and answer session, and the opportunity to provide feedback. Attendees will obtain the information necessary to produce informative, influential white papers, which in turn will be used to guide community-led definition of the observing strategies of the three Roman Core Community Surveys. Attendance of this splinter will be your first step to help ensure that Roman will obtain its survey data in a manner that is optimal for your science interests.

Roman Hyperwall Talks

During regular exhibition hall hours

Several talks on Roman, including a look at the progress of the mission as we get closer to a late 2026 planned launch date and details on the types of science that will be enabled by Roman's Wide Field Instrument, will be presented throughout the meeting in the Exhibition Hall at the NASA Hyperwall.

Roman at the STScI Exhibitor Booth 

During regular booth hours

We have many resources in the booth to support you in your interests with Roman. Our expert staff members will be on hand to provide individual assistance on a variety of topics from Roman capabilities to simulation tools and information about how you can get involved with the mission.   

AAS website