If you are wondering where the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be looking in the future, some of that is known and some has yet to be determined. The approved targets of the space telescope can be found at the Programmatic Categories of JWST Science Observations site.
The site breaks the approved targets into these six categories:
- General Observer (GO) Programs: Observations and archival research proposed by the community and selected by peer review.
- Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) Programs: Observations defined by members of the instrument and telescope science teams, as well as a number of interdisciplinary scientists.
- Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT): Time-critical observations that cannot be scheduled for a regular proposal cycle.
- Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS) Programs: Observations to be executed within the first five months of science operations and immediately released to the community.
- Calibration Programs: Observations used to calibrate the science instruments in support of all the other science programs.
- First Image Observations: The first observations following commissioning to demonstrate the observatory’s capabilities.
The GO Programs have been decided through Cycle 2. Earlier this month, the Space Telescope Science Institute put out a call for Cycle 3 Call for Proposals for the GO Programs. Proposals are due by October 25, 2023 and selected proposals will be announced in February 2024.
Take a look at the existing list and you will find plenty of interesting areas of study. For instance, under the Cycle 3 GTO Programs you have areas such as:
- Titan Surface and Atmosphere;
- Exoplanet search around Altair; and
- Search for Varuna’s Satellite.
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