[photo credit: NASA]
The Community Science (Ad ASTRA) Workshop runs Sept. 1 through 3, opening each day at 8:30 a.m., with badge pickup Tuesday at 7:45 a.m. NASA’s Astrophysics Division and its three program offices organize the meeting with the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech.
The days are themed science, capabilities and missions. JPL’s David Ardila opens Tuesday, followed at 8:45 a.m. by an introduction to the ASTRA initiative from Astrophysics Division Director Shawn Domagal-Goldman and Jessica Gaskin, the division’s associate director for concept and technology development. Breakout sessions run on cosmology, galaxies, exoplanets, stellar populations and compact objects, and a reception follows at 6:15 p.m. in Dabney Garden. Wednesday turns to technology, including Caltech’s Nemanja Jovanovic on photonics and JPL’s Matt Shaw on quantum sensors. On Thursday, Caltech’s Fiona Harrison speaks on lessons from the last decadal survey before Gaskin closes at 12:10 p.m.
Eleven of the 15 local organizers work at Caltech/IPAC. The workshop follows Sunday’s launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, whose science operations are supported in part from Pasadena. “It’s going to do things that currently are impossible,” Domagal-Goldman said of Roman at a July 29 press conference.
Need to know: Community Science (Ad ASTRA) Workshop, Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 1–3, 8:30 a.m. daily, adjourning 7:45 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. Free. Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech campus, Pasadena. In-person seating is full and limited to working professionals; plenary sessions stream free to anyone who registers by midnight Monday and completes a separate Zoom sign-up. Campus visitor parking, with electric-vehicle charging in the North Wilson and California structures. For more, email community2026@ipac.caltech.edu or visit the workshop website.
