From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Press conferences highlighting results enabled by NASA missions will stream live on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel. Additional agency highlights for registered attendees include:

• NASA Town Hall: Monday, Jan. 13, 12:45 p.m. EST
• Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m. EST
• James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. EST

Throughout the week, experts at the NASA Exhibit Booth will deliver science talks about missions including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called “Webb” or “JWST”), Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station that will be repaired in a spacewalk Jan. 16. Talks will also highlight future missions such as Pandora, Roman, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), which is targeted to launch in late February; as well as mission concepts for NASA’s new Probe Explorers mission class in astrophysics, open science, heliophysics, and NASA Science Activation.

Members of the media can request interviews with NASA experts on any of these topics by contacting Alise Fisher at alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov.

Schedule of Highlights (EST)

Monday, Jan. 13

10 a.m.: Special Session – “SPHEREx: The Upcoming All-Sky Infrared Spectroscopic Survey”
Chesapeake 4-5

10 a.m.: Special Session – “Early Science Results from XRISM [X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission]”
National Harbor 10

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “A Feast of Feasting Black Holes”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, NICER, NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), and Hubble, as well as XMM-Newton, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, will be featured:

• “Witnessing the Birth of a New Plasma Jet from a Supermassive Black Hole”
• “Rapidly Evolving X-Ray Oscillations in the Active Galaxy 1ES 1927+654”
• “Uncovering the Dining Habits of Supermassive Black Holes in Our Cosmic Backyard with NuLANDS”
• “The Discovery of a Newborn Quasar Jet Triggered by a Cosmic Dance”

12:45 p.m.: NASA Town Hall
Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Supernovae and Massive Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble space telescopes will be highlighted:

• “JWST Discovery of a Distant Supernova Linked to a Massive Progenitor in the Early Universe”
• “Core-Collapse Supernovae as Key Dust Producers: New Insights from JWST”
• “JWST Tracks the Expanding Dusty Fingerprints of a Massive Binary”
• “Stellar Pyrotechnics on Display in Super Star Cluster”
• “A Blue Lurker Emerges from a Triple-System Merger”

Tuesday, Jan. 14

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Black Holes & New Outcomes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s NuSTAR, Chandra, and Webb missions will be highlighted:

• “A Variable X-Ray Monster at the Epoch of Reionization”
• “JWST’s Little Red Dots and the Rise of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei in the Early Universe”
• “Revealing the Mid-Infrared Properties of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole”

2 p.m.: Special Session – “Open Science: NASA Astrophysics in the Roman Era”
Chesapeake 4-5

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Information from Milky Way Highlights”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Chandra missions will be highlighted:

• “Infrared Echoes of Cassiopeia A Reveal the Dynamic Interstellar Medium”
• “A Path-Breaking Observation of the Cold Neutral Medium of the Milky Way Through Thermal Light Echoes”
• “X-Ray Echoes from Sgr A* Provide Insight on the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center”

3:40 p.m.: Plenary – “A Detector Backstory: How Silicon Detectors Came to Enable Space Missions”
Shouleh Nikzad, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Potomac Ballroom AB

6:30 p.m.: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall
National Harbor 11

Wednesday, Jan. 15

8 a.m.: Plenary – “HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize Lecture: The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)”
Martin Weisskopf, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (emeritus), and Paolo Soffitta, INAF-IAPS (National Institute for Astrophysics-Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology)
Potomac Ballroom AB

10 a.m.: Special Session – Habitable Worlds Observatory
Potomac Ballroom C

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Discovering the Universe Beyond Our Galaxy”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Hubble and Webb will be highlighted:

• “The Hubble Tension in Our Own Backyard”
• “JWST Reveals the Early Universe in Our Backyard”
• “Growing in the Wind: Watching a Galaxy Seed Its Environment”

11:40 a.m.: Plenary – “Are We Alone? The Search for Life on Habitable Worlds”
Giada Arney, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Findings About Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Webb and Solar Dynamics Observatory will be highlighted:

• “A Super Star Cluster Is Born: JWST Reveals Dust and Ice in a Stellar Nursery”
• “The Discovery of Ancient Relics in a Distant Evolved Galaxy”
• “Exploring the Sun’s Active Regions in the Moments Before Flares”

6:30 p.m.: James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall
Potomac Ballroom C

Thursday, Jan. 16

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Exoplanets: From Formation to Disintegration”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Pandora, Chandra, TESS, and Webb missions, as well as XMM-Newton, will be highlighted:

• “A New NASA Mission to Characterize Exoplanets and Their Host Stars”
• “X-Rays in the Prime of Life: Irradiating Vulnerable Planets”
• “Bright Star, Fading World: Dusty Debris of a Dying Planet”
• “JWST Exposes Hot Rock Entrails from a Planet’s Demise”

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Galactic Histories and Policy Futures”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble will be highlighted:

• “The Boundary of Galaxy Formation: Constraints from the Ancient Star Formation of the Isolated, Extremely Low-Mass Galaxy Leo P”
• “Resolving 90 Million Stars in the Southern Half of Andromeda”

For more information on the meeting, including press registration and the complete meeting schedule, visit:

https://aas.org/meetings/aas245

Media Contacts

Alise Fisher / Liz Landau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-358-0845
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov