Dear Colleagues,
As recently announced, STScI is starting a large-scale, multi-year survey of rocky M-dwarf exoplanets—the Rocky Worlds DDT Program—using around 500 hours of Director’s Discretionary Time on the James Webb Space Telescope to search for atmospheres in more than a dozen nearby systems. Approximately 250 orbits of ultraviolet observations with the Hubble Space Telescope will be used to characterize the system’s host star UV properties. The main observational strategy of the program is to use secondary eclipse photometry with JWST/MIRI at 15 microns to constrain the presence (or lack thereof) of atmospheres on these exoplanet systems.
The Core Implementation Team (CIT), in charge of executing the observations, and the external Science Advisory Council (SAC), who will advise on all scientific aspects of the program, including target selection and data verification, are seeking input from the community on the target list as well as comments on the program observing strategy.
The CIT and the SAC have compiled an initial list of Targets Under Consideration (TUC) for the program here. The CIT expects to release a list of initial planned observations in mid-September, after community input is taken into account, but in advance of the JWST Cycle 4 deadline. Work to schedule observations for a handful of targets will be initiated in the second half of JWST Cycle 3 (November 2024-July 2025). These targets are not blocked for JWST Cycle 4 GO proposers; GO and/or AR programs that support or enhance the science outcome from the Rocky Worlds DDT program are welcome. The target list may evolve after the JWST Cycle 4 deadline, and targets added after the September 2024 draft target list release will only be executed after the results from the JWST Cycle 4 GO are published. If a GO program has similar scientific goals, sensitivity, and targets, the GO program will be given priority.
A summary of the expected schedule described above is as follows:
- TUC list published — August 9th, 2024
- Deadline for community feedback on targets & observing strategy — September 6th, 2024
- List of first targets to be observed by the Program — Week of September 16th, 2024
- JWST Cycle 4 CfP Deadline — October 16th, 2024
- JWST Cycle 4 Results — No earlier than March 2025
- List of additional targets to be observed by the Program — April 2025
Feedback might include, but is not limited to:
- Targets relevant for the program but which are either not in the target list and/or not yet published.
- Information regarding the current targets in the list (e.g., published or unpublished radial-velocities not in the list, precise photometric datasets for the targets, etc.)
- General strategy feedback (e.g., mode and/or technique usage for the targets in the list).
We encourage feedback from researchers from any career stage. Feedback should be submitted using this Google Form: https://forms.gle/do3Hnud9sezgjtvn9.
The submissions will be reviewed by the CIT and SAC, in consultation with an STScI Program Advisory Council, comprising the JWST Mission Head, Tom Brown, the Interim HST Mission Head, Julia Roman-Duval, and the Multi-Mission Project Scientist, Neill Reid.
The deadline for feedback is September 6, 2024. A selected compilation of this feedback as well as a list of the first planned observations of the Rocky Worlds DDT program will be announced by mid-September.
