Scientific Rationale
ESA and ESO are jointly organising a workshop to explore JWST and ELTs synergies. The workshop will take place at the ESO headquarters in Garching on April 13 to 16, 2010. The main goal of the workshop is to bring the JWST and ELT communities together, to identify the common science cases, and to outline instrumentation/upgrade priorities for the ELTs which would maximise the scientific return in key areas of scientific research requiring both facilities:
- The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization
- Assembly of Galaxies
- The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems
- Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life.
The product of the workshop will be a report (rather than proceedings). The report will, on the one hand, present the common science cases in the above areas. On the other hand, it will identify cases where synergy and complementarity between JWST and the ELTs lead to instrument priorities and programme strategies.
We believe that the workshop will be an international milestone for all concerned projects.
The workshop is particularly timely for the E-ELT, as it will feedback into the instrument suite selection of the E-ELT and serve as input to the E-ELT construction proposal. At the same time, JWST instruments are essentially complete and the joint telescope/instrument parameters well understood.
