Transients From Space

Transient science is entering an exciting new era of discovery. The 2020 Decadal Survey named Time Domain Astronomy (TDA) as a top priority, and NASA’s Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) program has prioritized Time Domain And Multi-Messenger (TDAMM) astrophysics. New discoveries will be greatly impacted by space-based telescopes, including, but not limited to, HST, JWST, Swift, Chandra, Fermi, TESS, Euclid, UVEX, ULTRASAT, LISA, and Roman. These telescopes probe new phase space in time, wavelength, and redshift, thereby opening up new sub-fields. This STScI workshop will explore novel research made possible by these telescopes and discuss how the community can optimize scientific output in the future. It will feature invited talks, contributed talks, posters, discussion panels, and fun social activities.

Workshop Objectives:  

• Highlight and build off successful science driven by space telescope data and policies;
• Uncover regions of overlap among telescopes and discuss opportunities for cross-mission synergies;
• Identify community needs for research and collaboration, particularly in the upcoming era of big data;
• Optimize future space-based observations for the entire community.

Workshop Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Early-Time Observations: SNe Ia, Fast Transients, Shock Breakout 
• High-Energy Transients: GRBs, GW 
• Progenitors: pre-explosion variability, stellar evolution 
• Infrared Transients: dust, SNRs, echoes, TDEs, AGN 
• High-z Transients: Lensed SNe, extreme explosions (SLSNe, PISNe), TDEs, AGN
• Survey Science: Euclid, Roman, UVEX, Big Data 
• Theory of explosive transients and compact objects

Agenda:

We are excited for our planned schedule, which is filled with excellent speakers across a range of backgrounds and subject matters. As a Workshop, our daily schedule will dedicate roughly ninety minutes to guided discussions and writing amongst subgroups divided by subject matter. There will be nine subgroups throughout the Workshop (Early Time Obs/ToOs, Stellar Transients, Dust and SNR, High-Z, High Energy, Stellar Pops, Type Ia, Extreme Transients, and Big Data). It is our intent to produce a community white paper that will summarize the biggest opportunities and challenges facing the Time-Domain Astronomy (TDA) community in terms of working with space telescopes and their data. This will serve as a useful opportunity for various initiatives and missions to elevate their priorities. We hope researchers at all levels consider being part of this discussion, whether you have a speaking slot or not.

Working Groups:

This STScI workshop will explore exciting time-domain research made possible by space telescopes and discuss how the community can optimize scientific output in the future. Throughout the workshop, we will facilitate discussions on related topics. At the end of each day, we will have three distinct working groups that will consider the following questions:

• What were some of the most exciting opportunities enabled by space telescopes, both hardware and policies?
• What were some of the biggest challenges faced when using space telescopes? 
• Is there any policy, infrastructure, software, or hardware that could have made the experiment easier or better?
• What are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges that the field faces in the next five years? And what can we, as a community, do now to prepare?