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The Exoplanet Strategy WG is charged with providing guidance on optimal strategies for maximizing the scientific return from HST and JWST spectroscopic and imaging observations of planetary systems. In particular, the Advisory Committee Working Group should address the following tasks:

• Solicit input from the community on key science areas that should be prioritized for HST or JWST observations;
• Identify science themes that should be prioritized for future HST and JWST General Observer programs and/or Archival analyses, including potential HST multi-cycle programs;
• Provide advice on the optimal timing for substantive follow-up observations and suggest mechanisms for enabling those observations;
• Comment on the appropriate scale of resources likely required to support those programs;
• Develop a specific concept for a large-scale (~500 hours) Director’s Discretionary exoplanet program to start implementation by JWST Cycle 3.

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The Working Group will comprise 8-10 members of the astronomical community selected by the STScI in consultation with the HST and JWST user committees. The Chair of the Working Group will organize the meetings of the Working Group, and STScI will provide logistical (travel, meeting, telecon, etc) support as needed. We expect that the Working Group will have at least one face-to-face meeting, supplemented by regular telecons and email exchanges.

The Working Group chair is Seth Redfield (Wesleyan) and the members are:

Natasha Batalha, Ames; Bjorn Benneke, Montreal; Beth Biller, ROE; Nestor Espinoza, STScI; Kevin France, Colorado; Quinn Konpacky, UCSD; Laura Kreidberg, MPIA; Emily Rauscher, Michigan; and David Sing, JHU

The Working Group committee will summarize their conclusions in a report to the Director and presentations to the STUC and the JSTUC. Interim recommendations will be presented in the Fall of 2023, with the final report due by January 2024.

The primary STScI contacts for the Advisory Committee will be Neill Reid (Associate Director for Science) , Tom Brown (HST Mission Office Head) and Massimo Stiavelli (JWST Mission Office Head), or their designates. All three will be ex officio members of the Advisory Committeeand Elena Sabbi (Deputy Head, SMO) They are ex officio members of the Working Group.

Call for Community Input - 26 June, 2023

The Working Group on Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives with HST and JWST is soliciting community input on how HST and JWST observations can best be leveraged to investigate exoplanet systems. More information about our working group can be found in our charter.

Community input was provided by completing this short, on-line survey and/or in the form of short white paper contributions submitted to STScI by Friday, September 8, 2023. Information on the activities of the working group, including links to the survey and white paper submission, can be found here. The latter site includes a list of FAQs. Three Town Hall meetings were held on July 12, 19 and 31 to advertise community engagement opportunities; the last meeting was reserved for early career researchers. Further details can be found on the Working Group website. 

The slide deck for the Town Halls is linked here. 

The white paper submissions are all linked here (or see the sidebar to this page).

Final Report

The Working Group's Final Report was submitted to the Director on April 1, 2024.