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STScI at the 246th AAS Meeting: June 8–12, 2025

STScI Newsletter
2025 / Volume 42 / Issue 01
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Claire Blome (cblome[at]stsci.edu)

Members of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) will participate in the 246th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) June 8–12 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center and the William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska.

STScI enables excellence in astronomical research by optimizing the science from state-of-the-art observational instruments in space. We are the science operations center of the Hubble Space Telescope, and we host the science and operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope. We will perform parts of the science operations for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, in formulation for launch in late 2026. STScI also houses the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) which is a NASA-funded project to support and provide to the astronomical community a variety of astronomical data archives, and is the data repository for the HST, JWST, Kepler, K2, TESS missions and more.

Throughout the week, members of STScI will be involved in a wide variety of workshops, science and technical presentations, and press conferences. Our exhibit booth and several associated events will highlight the missions we support on behalf of the science community.

STScI-Related Workshops, Events, and Sessions*
Title and Description Date and Time (AKTD) Type Location
MAST Data Challenge: Defeating Dr. Nefarious
Learn about the next generation of MAST data access tools: cloud platforms. We will use TIKE, our timeseries-focused platform, to access data in the cloud. During the workshop, participants will use a web browser to run Jupyter notebooks in TIKE's pre-installed Python environments and work with a team, using TIKE's real-time notebook collaboration feature.		 Saturday, June 7
9 a.m.–5 p.m.		 Workshop Egan Convention Center, Room 13/14
Preparing for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Working in Roman's Cloud-based Science Platform
Roman is anticipated to generate close to 30 petabytes of data during its five-year primary mission, heralding a new era of big data in astronomy. The Roman Research Nexus is the science platform being developed to offer the astronomical community a cloud computing environment for Roman data. This one-day workshop will introduce the Roman Research Nexus, which will be made available to the science community in summer 2025. In addition to offering hands-on training, we aim to gather feedback to understand the needs of the user community and identify early adopters interested in using the system for precursor science prior to Roman’s launch.		 Sunday, June 8
9 a.m.–5 p.m.		 Workshop Egan Convention Center, Room 13/14
[Cancelled] Roman Community Surveys
Learn about the recommended survey strategy for Roman’s three Core Community Surveys (the High Latitude Wide Area Survey, High Latitude Time Domain Survey, and Galactic Bulge Time Domain survey) as well as the Galactic Plane Survey, and participate in a detailed discussion of their associated science capabilities.		 Monday, June 9
10:00–11:30 a.m.		 Special Session Egan Convention Center, Room 13/14
Preparing for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's First Call for Proposals
As Roman’s launch approaches, there are increasing opportunities for the scientific community to become actively involved, culminating in the first Call for Proposals, expected to be released in fall 2025. Since all Roman data will be public immediately, the Call for Proposals will include support for analyzing archival data as well as the opportunity to propose new surveys. This splinter meeting is designed to provide attendees with the information and resources they need to begin to plan Roman proposals.		 Monday, June 9
12:30–2:00 p.m.		 Splinter Meeting Egan Convention Center, Room 11/12
[Cancelled] Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall
Roman is a NASA flagship mission planned for launch no later than May 2027. Roman 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. 		 Monday, June 9
6:30–8:00 p.m.		 Town Hall Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, TBD
[Cancelled] Roman Spectroscopy Data Challenge (Part 2 of 3)
Roman will provide groundbreaking insights into the universe through its wide-field slitless spectroscopy capabilities. As the mission launch approaches, the scientific community must develop expertise in handling Roman's spectral data, particularly in preparation for the first call for proposals in fall 2025. This splinter session serves as the second part of the Roman spectroscopic data challenge. It will build upon the foundations laid in the first session held in January 2025, but will also be accessible to newcomers. The main objectives of this session are to provide a refresher on Roman grism spectroscopy, offer an introduction to Roman prism spectroscopy and introduce spectral extraction techniques that convert 2D spectroscopic data to 1D spectra. Participants will gain a basic understanding of spectroscopy and the unique features of Roman. The discussions are intended to foster collaborations so that the scientific community is well-prepared to maximize the potential of Roman’s spectroscopic data.		 Tuesday, June 10
9:00–11:00 a.m.		 Splinter Meeting Egan Convention Center, Room 2
STScI Town Hall
The STScI Town Hall will serve as the centerpiece for our AAS 246 presence. We will report on the status of our existing and upcoming missions, and describe new opportunities designed to advance astrophysics in the 2020s. In particular, we will present updates on Hubble and Webb operations in light of the current severe budget constraints. We will describe the science opportunities afforded by Roman, with the first Call for Proposals scheduled for release in the fall. We will save time for discussion to receive community input regarding new capabilities and answer questions about our activities in the coming year.		 Tuesday, June 10
12:45–1:45 p.m.		 Town Hall Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, Tubughnenq' 5
[Cancelled] NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory Town Hall
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a future NASA flagship mission responding to the Astro2020 Decadal Survey, will have a large aperture primary mirror and broad wavelength coverage in the UV, optical, and IR, along with an extensive range of scientific capabilities. Its major goals will include searching for signs of life on Earth-like exoplanets, understanding the origin of galaxies, studying the cycling of matter in our universe, and placing our solar system in a broader cosmic context. Listen to presentations from members of the HWO Technology Maturation Project Office about HWO science, engineering, and technology followed by a panel question-and-answer session. The final 30 minutes will feature an HWO Open House, where presenters as well as HWO leadership and stakeholders will make themselves available to attendees for small-group discussions and community feedback, and share opportunities for participation in HWO.		 Wednesday, June 11
6:30–8 p.m.		 Town Hall Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, Tubughnenq' 5
Roman Space Telescope
iPosters include, “The Roman Research Nexus: Enabling Low-Barrier Access and Collaboration in the Cloud,” “Overview of the Astronomer's Proposal Tool for the Roman Space Telescope,” and “Desktop-based Simulation Tools for the Roman Space Telescope.”		 Thursday, June 12
1:00–2:00 p.m.		 iPoster Session Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, Exhibit Hall

 

* List updated on June 6, 2025

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