Professor Meyer ran his last ExoPAG face-to-face meeting as Chair of the Executive Committee at the Pasadena summer AAS June 11-12, 2022. He also presented a NASA “Hyper Wall” talk on science the NIRCam team will be doing soon with JWST.

Post-doctoral Research Associate Arthur Adams presented a talk on his latest results concerning spectral retrieval of a young low gravity planetary mass companion to HD 106906. He also chaired two science sessions at the meeting! Prof. Meyer also presented an iPoster for the first time (from his office in Ann Arbor during the second to last day of the meeting).

The University of Michigan is renaming the Randall Laboratory Addition to be henceforth called the Homer Neal Laboratory. Homer Neal was an alumni, Professor of Physics, Department Chair, Vice President for Research, and the first African American to hold the title of President of the University of Michigan. We are humbled to have our lab space located in a building honoring his achievements. More information can be found here.

We are very pleased to announce that Ryan MacDonald (Cornell University) will be joining the FEPS as a Sagan Fellow in fall 2022.  https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-022
Ryan is an expert in exoplanet atmospheric characterization.   https://distantworlds.space/
He will be interpreting JWST data on transiting planets with NIRISS (and other instruments) as well as work with Emily Rauscher and her research group.  

We are very pleased to announce that Taylor Tobin will be joining the FEPS Research Group this fall. Taylor is currently a post-doc at Notre Dame University, developing high contrast imaging programs with CHARIS on Subaru. She will contribute to our developing a high contrast imaging pipeline for MIRAC-5 on the MMT and Magellan, support our lab detector testing activities, and continue her research on exoplanets and planet formation.

Andrea Banzatti, Assistant Professor at Texas Tech. (and former PhD student of Prof. Meyer) discusses his successful Cycle #1 proposal for JWST to study water in planet-forming disks. Members of UM Astronomy are also participating in the program. The podcast can be found here.

Prof. Meyer presented a public lecture at the University of Michigan Saturday Morning Physics series March 12, 2022. The topic was the design and launch of, and plans for early science with, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The FEPS research group is heavily involved in the Cycle 1 GTO Programs for NIRCam and NIRISS, the ERS program on planets and disks in high contrast, as well as three approved Cycle 1 GO programs (one of which we co-lead). A video of the lecture can be found here.

Graduate student Matthew De Furio, FEPS team member, has been awarded a Rackham Merit Fellowship which provides funding for him through the next year for his PhD thesis research. Matthew is undertaking an ambitious program to understand the formation and evolution of multiple systems in young star clusters in comparison to the population of field stars in the Milky Way. We look forward to finding out what he will learn in the coming year!

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Gabriele Cugno will be joining the FEPS Research Group as a Visiting Scholar for (at least) two years starting in summer 2022. Gabriele just completed his PhD at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland where he studied forming protoplanets using various techniques including high contrast imaging with differential filters tuned for emission lines as well as in the thermal infrared. He has also used high resolution spectroscopy to conduct molecular mapping investigations of forming protoplanets such as PDS 70 b. Gabriele also has an approved JWST Cycle #1 program. We look forward to welcoming Gabriele later this year – Hopp Schwiiz!

It was tremendously exciting to experience the successful launch of JWST December 25, 2021. The stand-up of the observatory is going extremely well so far. You can follow the action here. Our group is involved in several Cycle #1 programs through the NIRCam and NIRISS Instrument Science Teams, Early Release Science, and successful General Observer Cycle #1 programs. Many members of the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy are planning to use JWST, from studies of high redshift galaxies to solar system bodies.

Image credit NASA/ESA/CSA.

Two recent press releases, one from ESO, and the other from NASA, highlight the beauty, and intrigue of the Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. There is a rich embedded cluster of young stars forming inside a molecular cloud in this region (the nebula refers to the reflected light and visible emission lines which can be detected with the human eye). The cluster is often used to illustrate the power of infrared astronomy as the dust extinction between the stars and us, limits our view in the visible: but in the infrared the forming young stars burst through. We are leading a guaranteed time observing program on JWST with NIRCam in Cycle 1 to search for objects between 2-20 Jupiter masses in this region. Graduate student Matthew De Furio will be leading this program on behalf of the NIRCam Team.