The Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program for JWST

Jacob L. Bean (1) , Kevin B. Stevenson (2) , Natalie M. Batalha (3) , Zachory Berta-Thompson (4) , Laura Kreidberg (5) , Nicolas Crouzet (6, 7) , Björn Benneke (8) , Michael R. Line (9) , David K. Sing (10) , Hannah R. Wakeford (2) , Heather A. Knutson (11) , Eliza M.-R. Kempton (12, 13) , Jean-Michel Désert (14) , Ian Crossfield (15) , Natasha E. Batalha (2) , Julien de Wit (16) , Vivien Parmentier (17) , Joseph Harrington (18) , Julianne I. Moses (19) , Mercedes Lopez-Morales (5) , Munazza K. Alam (5) , Jasmina Blecic (20) , Giovanni Bruno (2) , Aarynn L. Carter (10) , John W. Chapman (21) , Leen Decin (22) , Diana Dragomir (15) , Thomas M. Evans (10) , Jonathan J. Fortney (23) , Jonathan D. Fraine (2) , Peter Gao (24) , Antonio García Muñoz (25) , Neale P. Gibson (26) , Jayesh M. Goyal (10) , Kevin Heng (27) , Renyu Hu (21) , Sarah Kendrew (28) , Brian M. Kilpatrick (29) , Jessica Krick (30) , Pierre-Olivier Lagage (31) , Monika Lendl (32) , Tom Louden (33) , Nikku Madhusudhan (34) , Avi M. Mandell (35) , Megan Mansfield (1) , Erin M. May (36) , Giuseppe Morello (37) , Caroline V. Morley (5) , Nikolay Nikolov (38, 39) , Seth Redfield (40) , Jessica E. Roberts (4) , Everett Schlawin (41) , Jessica J. Spake (28) , Kamen O. Todorov (42) , Angelos Tsiaras (43) , Olivia Venot (44) , William C. Waalkes (4) , Peter J. Wheatley (33) , Robert T. Zellem (21) , Daniel Angerhausen (27, 45) , David Barrado (46) , Ludmila Carone (28) , Sarah L. Casewell (47) , Patricio E. Cubillos (48) , Mario Damiano (43, 49) , Miguel de Val-Borro (50, 51) , Benjamin Drummond (39) , Billy Edwards (43) , Michael Endl (52) , Nestor Espinoza (28) , Kevin France (53) , John E. Gizis (54) , Thomas P. Greene (3) , Thomas K. Henning (28) , Yucian Hong (55) , James G. Ingalls (56) , Nicolas Iro (57) , Patrick G. J. Irwin (58) , Tiffany Kataria (21) , Fred Lahuis (59) , J. Leconte (60) , Jorge Lillo-Box (61) , Stefan Lines (39) , Luigi Mancini (28) , Franck Marchis (62, 63) , Nathan Mayne , Enric Palle , Gaël Roudier , Evgenya L. Shkolnik , John Southworth , Johanna Teske , Giovanna Tinetti (64) , Pascal Tremblin (65) , Gregory S. Tucker (66) , Roy Vanboekel , Ingo P. Waldmann (43) , Ian C. Weaver , Tiziano Zingales (64)

1 University of Chicago
2 STSci - Space Telescope Science Institute
3 ARC - NASA Ames Research Center
4 Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences [Boulder]
5 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
6 IAC - Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
7 ULL - Universidad de La Laguna [Tenerife - SP]
8 Département de Physique [Montréal]
9 SESE - School of Earth and Space Exploration [Tempe]
10 University of Exeter
11 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences [Pasadena]
12 Grinnell College
13 Department of Astronomy [College Park]
14 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
15 MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
16 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences [MIT, Cambridge]
17 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
18 UCF - University of Central Florida [Orlando]
19 SSI - Space Science Institute [Boulder]
20 New York University [Abu Dhabi]
21 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
22 Institute of Astronomy [Leuven]
23 UC Santa Cruz - University of California [Santa Cruz]
24 LBNL - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [Berkeley]
25 ZAA - Zentrum für Astronomie und Astrophysik [Berlin]
26 ARC - Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast]
27 CSH - Center for Space and Habitability
28 MPIA - Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
29 Brown University
30 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
31 AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112) - Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation
32 OeAW - Austrian Academy of Sciences
33 University of Warwick [Coventry]
34 Institute of Astronomy [Cambridge]
35 GSFC Solar System Exploration Division
36 University of Michigan [Ann Arbor]
37 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
38 SINTEF Digital - Stiftelsen for INdustriell og TEknisk Forskning Digital [Trondheim]
39 EMPS - College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences [Exeter]
40 Wesleyan University
41 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
42 Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
43 Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London]
44 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
45 BMSIS - Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
46 ESAC - European Space Astronomy Centre
47 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
48 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
49 OAPa - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
50 Astrochemistry Laboratory [Greenbelt]
51 Catholic University of America
52 McDonald Observatory
53 CASA - Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy [Boulder]
54 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Newark]
55 Cornell University [New York]
56 IPAC - Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
57 University of Vienna [Vienna]
58 AOPP - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford]
59 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
60 LAB - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac]
61 ESO - European Southern Observatory [Santiago]
62 Carl Sagan Center
63 Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata [Roma] = University of Rome Tor Vergata
64 UCL - University College of London [London]
65 MDLS - Maison de la Simulation
66 Ames Laboratory [Ames, USA]

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presents the opportunity to transform our understanding of planets and the origins of life by revealing the atmospheric compositions, structures, and dynamics of transiting exoplanets in unprecedented detail. However, the high-precision, time-series observations required for such investigations have unique technical challenges, and prior experience with other facilities indicates that there will be a steep learning curve when JWST becomes operational. In this paper we describe the science objectives and detailed plans of the Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science (ERS) Program, which is a recently approved program for JWST observations early in Cycle 1. The goal of this project, for which the obtained data will have no exclusive access period, is to accelerate the acquisition and diffusion of technical expertise for transiting exoplanet observations with JWST, while also providing a compelling set of representative datasets that will enable immediate scientific breakthroughs. The Transiting Exoplanet Community ERS Program will exercise the time-series modes of all four JWST instruments that have been identified as the consensus highest priorities, observe the full suite of transiting planet characterization geometries (transits, eclipses, and phase curves), and target planets with host stars that span an illustrative range of brightnesses. The observations in this program were defined through an inclusive and transparent process that had participation from JWST instrument experts and international leaders in transiting exoplanet studies. Community engagement in the project will be centered on a two-phase Data Challenge that culminates with the delivery of planetary spectra, time-series instrument performance reports, and open-source data analysis toolkits in time to inform the agenda for Cycle 2 of the JWST mission.

Mots clés: Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Jacob L. Bean, Kevin B. Stevenson, Natalie M. Batalha, Zachory Berta-Thompson, Laura Kreidberg, et al.. The Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program for JWST. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2018, 130 (993), pp.114402. ⟨10.1088/1538-3873/aadbf3⟩. ⟨hal-01735001⟩