The JWST Early Release Science Program for the Direct Imaging &amp; Spectroscopy of Exoplanetary Systems
Creators: name: Hinkley, Sasha
name: Carter, Aarynn L.
name: Ray, Shrishmoy
name: Skemer, Andrew
name: Biller, Beth
name: Choquet, Elodie
name: Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.
name: Sallum, Stephanie
name: Miles, Brittany
name: Whiteford, Niall
name: Patapis, Polychronis
name: Perrin, Marshall D.
name: Pueyo, Laurent
name: Schneider, Glenn
name: Stapelfeldt, Karl
name: Wang, Jason
name: Ward-Duong, Kimberly
name: Bowler, Brendan P.
name: Boccaletti, Anthony
name: Girard, Julien H.
name: Hines, Dean
name: Kalas, Paul
name: Kammerer, Jens
name: Kervella, Pierre
name: Leisenring, Jarron
name: Pantin, Eric
name: Zhou, Yifan
name: Meyer, Michael
name: Liu, Michael C.
name: Bonnefoy, Mickael
name: Currie, Thayne
name: McElwain, Michael
name: Metchev, Stanimir
name: Wyatt, Mark
name: Absil, Olivier
name: Adams, Jea
name: Barman, Travis
name: Baraffe, Isabelle
name: Bonavita, Mariangela
name: Booth, Mark
name: Bryan, Marta
name: Chauvin, Gael
name: Chen, Christine
name: Danielski, Camilla
name: De Furio, Matthew
name: Factor, Samuel M.
name: Fortney, Jonathan J.
name: Grady, Carol
name: Greenbaum, Alexandra
name: Henning, Thomas
name: Janson, Markus
name: Kennedy, Grant
name: Kenworthy, Matthew
name: Kraus, Adam
name: Kuzuhara, Masayuki
name: Lagage, Pierre-Olivier
name: Lagrange, Anne-Marie
name: Launhardt, Ralf
name: Lazzoni, Cecilia
name: Lloyd, James
name: Marino, Sebastian
name: Marley, Mark
name: Martinez, Raquel
name: Marois, Christian
name: Matthews, Brenda
name: Matthews, Elisabeth C.
name: Mawet, Dimitri
name: Phillips, Mark
name: Petrus, Simon
name: Quanz, Sascha P.
name: Quirrenbach, Andreas
name: Rameau, Julien
name: Rebollido, Isabel
name: Rickman, Emily
name: Samland, Matthias
name: Sargent, B.
name: Schlieder, Joshua E.
name: Sivaramakrishnan, Anand
name: Stone, Jordan M.
name: Tamura, Motohide
name: Tremblin, Pascal
name: Uyama, Taichi
name: Vasist, Malavika
name: Vigan, Arthur
name: Wagner, Kevin
name: Ygouf, Marie
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The direct characterization of exoplanetary systems with high contrast imaging is among the highest priorities for the broader exoplanet community. As large space missions will be necessary for detecting and characterizing exo-Earth twins, developing the techniques and technology for direct imaging of exoplanets is a driving focus for the community. For the first time, JWST will directly observe extrasolar planets at mid-infrared wavelengths beyond 5$μ$m, deliver detailed spectroscopy revealing much more precise chemical abundances and atmospheric conditions, and provide sensitivity to analogs of our solar system ice-giant planets at wide orbital separations, an entirely new class of exoplanet. However, in order to maximise the scientific output over the lifetime of the mission, an exquisite understanding of the instrumental performance of JWST is needed as early in the mission as possible. In this paper, we describe our 55-hour Early Release Science Program that will utilize all four JWST instruments to extend the characterisation of planetary mass companions to $\sim$15$μ$m as well as image a circumstellar disk in the mid-infrared with unprecedented sensitivity. Our program will also assess the performance of the observatory in the key modes expected to be commonly used for exoplanet direct imaging and spectroscopy, optimize data calibration and processing, and generate representative datasets that will enable a broad user base to effectively plan for general observing programs in future cycles.
description: 21 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for Publication in PASP