Press Conferences and Special Events

All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Monday, June 16

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Town Hall)

12:45 p.m., Ballroom A of the Pasadena Convention Center

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a NASA flagship mission planned for launch no earlier than September 2026. The Roman Space Telescope will perform breakthrough science in dark energy cosmology, exoplanet microlensing, and NIR sky surveys with its Wide Field Instrument. Roman will also feature the Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), a technology demonstration that will directly image and take spectra of exoplanetary systems using several novel technologies together for the first time in space. This session will cover the status of the project and upcoming opportunities for community involvement in planning and executing the science and technology demonstration aspects of Roman.

Presented by Vivian U (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

Tuesday, June 16

Fire and Ice in Planetary Systems Near and Far (Press conference)

208.15 - Are All Hot Jupiters Tidally Synchronized? Exploring the Mysterious Case of CoRoT-2 b

2:15 p.m., Ballroom H of the Pasadena Convention Center

Presented by Aurora Kesseli (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

Wednesday, June 17

Stars Reshaping Galaxies: Clusters, Feedback, and Explosive Aftermaths (Press conference)

407.01 - A New Era of Galaxy Cluster Analysis at Cosmic Noon: JWST’s View of a Distant Galaxy Cluster

10:15 a.m., Ballroom H of the Pasadena Convention Center

Presented by Kyle Finner (Caltech/IPAC)

IPAC: Your Passport to the Universe (Splinter session/Reception)

6:30-8:00 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Conference Center, 106

In this session, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of IPAC, a center for science operations, user support, archives, and data services located on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, California. Beginning with the IRAS mission in 1985 and spanning 2MASS, Spitzer, Herschel, Planck, WISE/NEOWISE and Euclid, IPAC has leveraged surveys and more to enable transformative research of the entire sky. Over our 40-year history, we have provided a range of support for more than 20 missions, helping each to bring forth major advances in astrophysics, planetary science, and cosmology. To celebrate this anniversary, we invite you to the “IPAC: Your Passport to the Universe” splinter session open house at AAS 248. This session seeks to bring together the people who have contributed to and benefitted from the 40 years of IPAC operations, as well as the new generation of scientists broadening our understanding of the Universe.

Attendees will be welcomed to the session with a “passport,” a booklet containing information about IPAC and questions for which they are encouraged to find answers throughout the interactive session. After an introduction from IPAC Director Tom Greene and IPAC partners, attendees will move between fun exhibits to learn how IPAC has contributed to infrared astrophysics, planetary sciences, data archives, conferences, workshops, and future missions. Passports will be stamped at each exhibit station, and attendees with full passports will receive limited-edition, 40th anniversary IPAC merchandise. There will also be a sticker board where attendees can showcase their participation in IPAC missions and archives, a vision board where attendees can add their aspirations for the next 40 years, and information about our sponsors. Hosted drinks and appetizers will be served, thanks to generous sponsorship from BAE Systems. This session is intended to be a joyful celebration and a dive into IPAC’s many contributions to the field of astronomy.

Workshops

All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Sunday, June 14

Euclid Data in the Cloud: Access, Analysis, and Science Opportunities

10:00 to 11:30 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Conference Center, 101

Euclid is an ESA mission with NASA participation designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe through deep optical and near-infrared imaging and slitless spectroscopy. With its first public data now available and a much larger release planned for this year, this hands-on session will introduce the U.S. community to accessing and analyzing Euclid data products via the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), which hosts the complementary U.S. Euclid archive, as well as through NASA Fornax cloud resources. Participants will explore science applications spanning AGNs to galaxy clusters and large-scale structure, with examples of machine learning approaches applied to Euclid data. The workflows presented are designed to scale to future releases, preparing researchers to fully leverage Euclid’s first major cosmological datasets.

Talks in this workshop:

• 10:00 to 10:10 a.m. - Euclid Overview - presented by Anahita Alavi (Caltech/IPAC)
• 10:10 to 10:15 a.m. - NASA Fornax - presented by Vandana Desai (Caltech/IPAC-IRSA)
• 10:15 to 10:35 a.m. - Euclid Data in the Cloud: Access, Analysis, and Science Opportunities - presented by Troy Raen (Caltech/IPAC-IRSA)
• 10:35 to 11:30 a.m. - Science with Euclid Q1 - presented by Shoubaneh Hemmati (Caltech/ IPAC)

An Introduction to Fornax: Scalable Data and Compute for Scientific Analysis

2:00 to 4:00 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Conference Center, 101

Fornax is NASA’s new Astrophysics Science Platform, providing cloud-hosted access to NASA data, scalable computing, and integrated analysis tools. Now in beta, Fornax allows researchers to move computation to the data rather than transferring large data sets to local machines.

This hands-on workshop introduces attendees to Fornax through live demonstrations and guided exercises. Participants will explore which NASA astrophysics data sets are available in the cloud, and learn what levels of compute are accessible for scientific analysis. We will discuss practical differences and advantages of cloud-based computing compared to traditional on-prem workflows, including performance, scalability, and data locality.

The exercises will demonstrate example science workflows on the platform, including cross-matching large catalogs using HATS/Parquet formats, and show how familiar tools can be used directly against cloud-hosted data. By the end of the session, participants will understand how to use Fornax to access NASA data and carry out analyses in a cloud-native environment.

Talks and Special Sessions

All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Monday, June 15

108.07 - HWO Science Interest Group: Keeping the Community Connected to HWO

11:00 to 11:10 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom G

The Habitable Worlds Observatory Science Interest Group is an activity that spans the Exoplanet Exploration, Cosmic Origins, and Physics of the Cosmos Program Analysis Groups within the NASA Astrophysics Division. The SIG is an interdisciplinary, community-based forum coordinating analyses and communicating inputs in support of the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Presented by Jessie Christiansen with Vivian U (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

117 - The PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) (Special Session)

2:00 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom G

PRIMA (PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics) is a far-infrared probe mission concept in Phase A for NASA’s call for Astrophysics Explorers (APEX). PRIMA’s cryogenic design and highly sensitive detectors enable unprecedented far-infrared science. PRIMA’s PI science focuses on the astrochemical signatures of planet formation, the co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes across cosmic time, and measuring the formation and buildup of galaxies, heavy elements, and interstellar dust from cosmic noon to today. With at least 75% of its observing time available for General Observer (GO) science, and all PI survey data made rapidly available, PRIMA will be a community mission and is designed to address a wide range of astrophysics.

In this special session, we invite the astronomical community to learn more about PRIMA as a general observer facility. Given the location of the meeting in Pasadena, we plan to have a large presence from JPL, giving the community a unique opportunity to get to know the PRIMA team. The special session will feature talks from PRIMA team members describing an overview of PRIMA, the PI survey data that will be available for community science, data access through IPAC, and plans for citizen science and student collaboration. We will also feature talks from community members discussing sample general observer science cases. At the end of the session, we will reserve time for additional discussions with team members.

Our poster session will be another opportunity to present updates from the broad team, including instrumentation as well as science. We will additionally welcome posters from all members of the community and aim to have the poster session be a time for community engagement and conversation.

Talks in this session:

• 2:20 to 2:30 p.m. - 117.03 PRIMA Data Access Through IRSA - presented by Vandana Desai (Caltech/IPAC-IRSA) with Justin Kader (Caltech/IPAC) et al.
• 2:30 to 2:40 p.m. - 117.04 FIRESIDE: Precursor Science for PRIMA - presented by Vivian U (Caltech/IPAC) with Justin Kader (Caltech/IPAC) et al.
• 2:40 to 2:50 p.m. -  117.05 Probing Stellar Explosions and Cosmic Dust with PRIMA - presented by Ryan Lau (Caltech/IPAC) with Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC) et al.
• 2:50 to 3:00 p.m. - 117.06 PRIMA in a Community Context - presented by Roberta Paladini (Caltech/IPAC)
• 3:10 to 3:20 p.m. - 117.08 A Citizen Science Program for PRIMA - presented by David Ciardi (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

119.01 - COUNTESS: Exoplanet Demographics with the TESS Continuous Viewing Zones

2:00 to 2:10 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A 

NASA's TESS mission has opened up the entire sky to the realm of exoplanet demographics. Complementary to---and extending the legacy of---the Kepler and K2 missions, TESS has so far been used to search for short-period planets around bright, nearby host stars. While each TESS sector observation is limited to 27 days, the survey strategy has allowed for nearly continuous coverage over multiple cycles of two 450 square degree regions centered on the ecliptic poles, called the Continuous Viewing Zones (CVZs). The TESS CVZs are ideal regions to search for long-period planets, including within the habitable zones of M dwarfs. In this project, we are building a pipeline COUNTESS (Combining Observations to Unveil New Transiting Exoplanet Systems and Statistics) based on open-source tools developed by the TESS community to extract light curves, search for and vet exoplanet candidates, and measure planet occurrence rates. COUNTESS has already been able to recover over 100 TESS Objects of Interest in the northern CVZ and 10 brand new planet candidates in ~27,000 available SPOC light curves. We are extending our search to the southern CVZ and incorporating new tools into COUNTESS to search ~800,000 main sequence stars in the CVZs, which will allow for comprehensive exoplanet demographic studies.

Presented by Kevin-Hardegree-Ullman (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

119.06 - Searching for Planets around Altair with JWST/NIRcam

2:50 to 3:00 p.m., Ballroom A of the Pasadena Convention Center

Altair is one of the nearest stars to the Sun at 5.13 pc, and its age has recently been revised to 88+-10 Myr, making it one of the youngest stars in the Solar neighborhood and a compelling target for high-contrast direct imaging searches for giant planets. In this talk I will present two epochs of simultaneous F444W and F200W MASK430R JWST/NIRCam coronagraphic imaging observations of Altair. After post-processing, these data achieve F444W contrast levels of 1.5 × 10^-7 at 2" (10.3 au) and a few × 10⁻^-8 beyond 4" (20 au), corresponding to sub-Jupiter mass sensitivity beyond 5 au and sub-Saturn mass sensitivity beyond 10 au using the BEX evolutionary models. Several candidate point sources identified in the first epoch were confirmed in second epoch observations to be background stars, not co-moving companions. Despite Altair having no known companions, no detected debris disk, and no association with any stellar group, its youth and proximity ensure it will remain a high-priority target for future high-contrast imaging campaigns. I will also discuss Altair's potential as a coronagraphic reference star for imaging campaigns over the next 10–20 years, making it a reliable reference target for upcoming observations.

Presented by Tiffany Meshkat, Charles Beichman, Alexandra Greenbaum (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

119.02 - COUNTESS: A Pipeline to Extract the Potential of the TESS Mission for Exoplanet Demographics

2:10 to 2:20 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A 

Now in its third extended mission phase, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is well-positioned for comprehensive investigations of exoplanet demographics. Multiple sectors of coverage are now available for many targets, and numerous tools have been developed to enable deep (i.e., TESS magnitude < 13.5) transit searches over large samples of stars. Even still, exoplanet occurrence rate studies with TESS have leveraged only a subset of these capabilities, limiting their scope. We present COUNTESS (Combining Observations to Unveil New Transiting Exoplanet Systems and Statistics), a new pipeline for light curve extraction, transit search, planet vetting, and occurrence rate calculations. COUNTESS maximizes the potential of the TESS mission for exoplanet demographics by integrating 1) reliable and lightweight light curve extraction for stars fainter than 13.5 magnitudes (e.g., achieving ~1.5 millimag precision at 14th magnitude), 2) the capability to combine heterogeneously-sampled data from sectors spanning multiple mission phases, and 3) CPU and GPU-accelerated transit search and injection-recovery routines. Following our preliminary study, we apply an updated version of COUNTESS to nearly 400,000 stars in the northern TESS Continuous Viewing Zone (CVZ) in search of new planets with orbital periods of up to several hundred days. Pushing to fainter limiting magnitudes significantly increases the number of CVZ stars that can be searched for transit signals, especially K and M dwarfs (whose sample size ~doubles from 13.5 to 14th magnitude), enabling occurrence rate measurements for planets in the habitable zone.

Presenter: Brandon Radzom, Co-authors: Kevin-Hardegree-Ullman (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

119.04 - MOA-bin-240: A Planetary Gravitational Microlensing Event Discovered in the 9-Year MOA-II Dataset Using a Convolutional Neural Network Pipeline

2:20 to 2:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

In the era of large-scale surveys such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, fast and efficient alternative methods can improve the completeness of planetary microlensing discoveries. We investigate the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to detect microlensing events in the 9-year MOA-II dataset, a set of ~2.4 million light curves collected between 2006 and 2014 with the 1.8-meter MOA-II telescope at Mount John Observatory, New Zealand. While examining light curves misclassified by our CNN, we identify a new microlensing event that was not flagged as such by any existing alert systems and was likely never previously inspected by the microlensing community. Preliminary modeling suggests a star-planet mass ratio of q ~ 10-6, making this a robust planetary microlensing candidate. We present an evaluation of our current CNN results and the ongoing analysis of this event.

Presented by Stela Ishitani Silva (Caltech/IPAC)

119.05 - Exoplanet Demographics in Galactic Space and Time

2:30 to 2:50 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

While stellar metallicity has long been known to correlate with planetary properties, the galactic metallicity gradient alone does not account for this trend. It is therefore possible that there exists some time-dependent component to planet occurrence in the Milky Way over Gyr timescales, driven by something other than the metal enrichment of the ISM. In this talk, I will discuss recent results on the observable effect of a time-dependent planet occurrence rate upon a stellar sample chosen to resemble Kepler and K2 Sun-like stars. Using a novel planetary system population synthesis code, called psps, we imposed several prescriptions for time-variable planet occurrence upon our sample. We then forward modeled the expected exoplanet yield as a function of galactic height for synthetic Kepler and K2 missions, employing the missions’ footprints and transit sensitivities and comparing the modeled trends to the observed results from the missions themselves. We found that models in which the planet host fraction increased by a factor of several within the past few Gyr can reproduce the observed occurrence-galactic height trend; this timing is broadly consistent with the galactic kinematic heating timescale. I will then consider how varying the functional form of our planet occurrence prescription affects our conclusions, as well as the physical implications of a seemingly recent increase in planet occurrence on Gyr timescales, as part of a broader conversation about the galactic context for planet formation. Finally, I will briefly introduce my postdoc work building the Roman microlensing exoplanet occurrence pipeline, including the first detection efficiency maps from the RGES PIT.

Presented by Christopher Lam (Caltech/IPAC) - dissertation talk

119.07 Searching for Habitable Exoplanets with Relative Astrometry (SHERA): The science case for looking for Earths in binary systems

3:00 to 3:10 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

Tuesday, June 16

Get Set for the Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument 

10:30 to 11:00 a.m., Exhibitor Theater

The talk will highlight the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, scheduled to launch later this year. The talk will focus on the Coronagraph Instrument, its capabilities, operations from the Science Support Center at IPAC, and possible observations in early operations.

Presented by Alex Greenbaum (Caltech/IPAC)

208.06 The Pandora SmallSat Early Mission Updates

10:50 to 11:00 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom B

The Pandora SmallSat launched to a sun-synchronous orbit in low-Earth orbit in January of this year. Pandora was selected in 2021 in the inaugural class of NASA Astrophysics Pioneers missions with the goal of addressing stellar contamination. Pandora obtains simultaneous optical photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy in order to better constrain stellar activity signals in planetary transmission spectroscopy observations. Here we present on the first several months of Pandora operations. We will discuss target selection of the Prime Mission targets. We will also discuss observational strategy of the mission. Finally, we will discuss lesson learned from this new mission class.

Presented by Emily Gilbert (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI) et al.

214 - AI-Driven Science in the Survey Era (Special Session)

2:00 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom F

The era of large astronomical surveys has created vast data archives with tremendous untapped scientific potential. Machine learning and AI are transforming how we extract science from these datasets, enabling discoveries from individual objects to population-level studies across the sky and cosmic time. Major astronomical archives and scalable analysis environments across the community, such as those hosted by IPAC, have become important platforms for developing and deploying AI-driven approaches. This session showcases recent scientific breakthroughs enabled by AI across stellar populations, time-domain astrophysics, exoplanet demographics, near-Earth objects, galaxy evolution, and cosmology, demonstrating that computational innovation is now essential for maximizing scientific return from both legacy and next-generation survey data. Contributions highlighting new AI-enabled results from survey data are especially encouraged.

Talks in this session:

• 2:15 to 2:30 p.m. -  214.02 Accelerating Literature Data Extraction with AI at IPAC - presented by Nicholas Susemiehl (Caltech/IPAC)
• 2:30 to 2:45 p.m. - 214.03 A Physics-Informed Artificial Intelligence Framework for Super-Resolving Galaxy Spectra - presented by Aryana Haghjoo, University of California, Riverside; includes Shoubaneh Hemmati, Caltech/IPAC
• 2:45 to 3:00 p.m. - 214.04 Machine Learning Classification of Detections and Tracklets for the NEO Surveyor Mission - presented by Nima Chartab (Caltech/IPAC)
• 3:15 to 3:30 p.m.  - 214.06 AstroFetch: AI-Powered Astronomy Data Service - presented by BJ Fulton  (Caltech/IPAC) with Tiffany Meshkat (Caltech/IPAC); NASA Exoplanet Archive

215.07 SPHEREx Data Access and Archival Tools

3:20 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom G

The NASA SPHEREx mission has completed two of the planned four all-sky, spectroscopic surveys over the wavelength range of 0.75 to 5 microns. The SPHEREx Science Data Center (SSDC) at IPAC operates a data processing pipeline for SPHEREx to produce several data products, including calibrated spectral images available within 2 months. These data are hosted at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). I will describe the SPHEREx data processing and publically available data products and tools at IRSA.

Presented by Rachel Akeson (Caltech/IPAC) and the SPHEREx Science Data Center at IPAC

Wednesday, June 17

314.01 Plenary talk: The Cosmic Infrared Window: Photons, Technology and People

11:40 to 12:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom DE

Presented by George Helou, Caltech/IPAC

319.04 Paschen Beta Emission with JWST PASSAGE

2:20 to 2:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom C

We present analysis of six deepest fields from the Parallel Application of Slitless Spectroscopy to Analyze Galaxy Evolution (PASSAGE) Survey that have full grism wavelength coverage (3 filters) from 1 – 2.2 microns. We present H alpha emitters detected at z = 0.54 − 0.73, where Paschen Beta is also detectable at the longest wavelengths. We present Paschen Beta detections ( > 2.5 sigma) and upper limits. The line emitters with Paschen Beta detections have Ha/PaB ratios indicative of large dust attenuation. The luminosities and dust attenuation of the PASSAGE Paschen Beta sources are consistent with what is seen at lower redshifts (z < 0.287) in Cleri et al. (2022), although the PASSAGE sources have fainter absolute magnitudes, suggesting they are on average a lower mass, higher sSFR population. The lack of many low dust attenuation, bright Paschen Beta galaxies suggests that at least for lower redshifts (z < 1), high star formation galaxies tend to harbor a significant fraction of their star formation in high dust opacity HII regions to which ultraviolet light and Balmer emission lines are less sensitive.

Presented by James Colbert with Anahita Alavi, Keunho Kim,  Vihang Mehta,  Kalina Nedkova, Zahra Sattari, and Harry Teplitz (Caltech/IPAC) 

319.05 Direct constraints on the ionizing photon production efficiency of galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2.3: Evidence of increased efficiency in low-mass systems

2:30 to 2:40 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom C

JWST continues to detect faint galaxies from the epoch of reionization (EoR), yet the relative roles of low-mass versus brighter galaxies in driving reionization remain uncertain. To address this, we measure the ionizing photon production efficiency (ξion) for galaxies down to low stellar masses (log(M* / M⊙) ≃ 7.5) at 0.5 < z < 2.3, leveraging gravitational lensing magnification. This work is part of an ongoing Cycle 3 JWST archival program using ERS grism spectroscopy targeting the Abell 2744 cluster. Based on a sample of 148 galaxies with robust detections in both Hα and UV continuum (SNR > 3 for each), we find a gradual increase in the median ξion with increasing redshift across this range, confirming previous results and extending them down to z ≃ 0.5. We also find a significant correlation between ξion and UV continuum slope, with bluer galaxies exhibiting higher ξion, likely reflecting the presence of young, massive stars from recent bursty star formation. Moreover, our high-redshift (1.5 < z < 2.3) low-mass galaxies show an ≈0.3 dex increase in median ξion compared to more massive systems (log(M* / M⊙) > 9). Thus, these results suggest that bursty, low-mass galaxies are efficient producers of ionizing photons and may play a key role in driving cosmic reionization.

Presented by Keunho Kim with  Anahita Alavi, James Colbert, Vihang Mehta, Zahra Sattari, and Harry Teplitz (Caltech/IPAC)

321.06 A SPHEREx Galactic Dust Emission Map from Hydrogen Recombination Lines

2:40 to 2:50 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom B

The SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission launched on March 11th, 2025. The mission is currently completing the second of four full-sky coverages in 102 spectral bands from 0.75 to 5 micron with a 6.15" angular resolution. In this NIR wavelength range, several hydrogen recombination lines are found. By comparing the observed vs. predicted intensity of these lines, I will show how it is possible to construct a dust extinction map for a large fraction of the Galactic Plane, following the method pioneered by Fritz et al. (2011).

Presented by Roberta Paladini (Caltech/IPAC)

321.07 From Detector Images to Diffuse Background Maps: A SPHEREx Pilot Study

2:50 to 3:00 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom B

Diffuse Galactic infrared emission is both an astrophysical signal and a dominant systematic in Galactic-plane studies. SPHEREx provides contiguous spectral imaging from 0.75 to 5 μm, but current data products require reconstruction from calibrated detector images rather than precomputed diffuse maps. In this pilot study, we select a representative Galactic-plane field based on coverage and construct channel mosaics directly from detector-level data, developing a large-scale filtering approach to build channel-resolved diffuse background models. We explicitly track geometric coverage to ensure reliable channel support and consistent spatial sampling across wavelengths. As a demonstration, we extract a common dark structure and derive a multi-wavelength extinction proxy, converting it into a relative dust-opacity curve under a fixed-column assumption. While secondary to the main goal, this result illustrates the scientific utility of the background models. We also perform a preliminary comparison with existing diffuse infrared background models at similar wavelengths to place our results in context. Our work establishes a practical pathway from SPHEREx detector-level products to robust, field-specific diffuse background estimation, with current limitations driven primarily by incomplete channel coverage.

Presented by Wanggi Lim (Caltech/IPAC) with Jae Hwan Kang (Caltech) & Keunho Kim (Caltech/IPAC)

Thursday, June 18

404.02 Clumpy Star Formation in Nearby Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies

10:50 to 11:00 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom C

404.04 Dusty and Over-pressured: Measuring Stellar Feedback in the Closest Luminous Infrared Galaxy

11:10 to 11:20 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom C

The balance between stellar feedback pressures (radiation, warm gas pressure, stellar winds, etc.), ambient ISM pressure, and region self-gravity controls the rate at which molecular clouds are disrupted and young star-forming regions expand, and is crucial for setting the efficiency of star-formation and gas clearing. With recent advances due to the synergy of JWST and HST, stellar feedback pressures have been measured across thousands of extragalactic star-forming regions in normal star-forming galaxies. However, the effect of stellar feedback remains poorly constrained in more extreme environments — including extreme starbursts and dust-enshrouded nuclei. I will present first measurements of the pre-supernova stellar feedback pressures associated with ~1,600 young clusters in the closest Luminous Infrared Galaxy, NGC3256 (d ~ 40 Mpc), from the GOALS (Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey) program using high-resolution JWST, HST, MUSE, and ALMA data. In this dusty, late-stage merger, we measure feedback pressures that are ~2 orders of magnitude higher than normal star-forming disks, with radiation pressure (from both UV and infrared photons) dominating the pressure budget. We compare the total stellar feedback pressures against the external ISM pressure and find that while many clusters in the densest parts of the merging system are pressure-confined, most clusters are over-pressured relative to their surroundings, and are likely expanding. We measure turbulent gas pressures and disk dynamical equilibrium pressures, and find a highly turbulent ISM which is likely not confined to a disk. Our measurements have direct implications for the dynamical evolution of star-forming regions with their external environment, and the efficiency of stellar feedback in ionizing and clearing cold gas before supernovae go off in starburst galaxies.

Presented by Debosmita Pathak (The Ohio State University) with Lee Armus, Laura Lenkic, Shao-Yu (Thomas) Lai (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

407.01 - A New Era of Galaxy Cluster Analysis at Cosmic Noon: JWST’s View of XLSSC 122

10:00 to 10:10 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

XLSSC 122 is a rare massive galaxy cluster at z=1.98 that exhibits a mature galaxy population and a well-defined red sequence. We observed the cluster with JWST and discovered giant strong-lensing arcs, enabling precise constraints on the inner mass distribution and revealing that the cluster hosts a highly concentrated core. Weak-lensing measurements mapped the dark matter and found that the mass peak is aligned with the X-ray emission and the brightest cluster galaxy, but on larger scales indicated that the system is dynamically active. The JWST observations also detected the intracluster light extending ~500 kpc from the BCG, demonstrating that diffuse stellar mass assembly was already well underway by z~2. The correspondence between the lensing-derived mass distribution, the central galaxy, and the intracluster light suggests a close connection between dark matter structure and early stellar buildup in the cluster core. Together, these results show that massive clusters in the early universe are powerful laboratories for understanding the assembly of galaxies, dark matter, and intracluster light.

Presented by Kyle Finner with Andreas Faisst (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

407.03 - NED-LVS: Support for Multi-Messenger Events and New Galaxy Diameters

10:30 - 10:40 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

411 - 40 Years of Community Engagement at IPAC: Lessons Learned (Special session)

Session Chair: Luisa Rebull (Caltech/IPAC)

2:00 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom F

For 40 years, IPAC has been at the forefront of connecting astronomical research with both the scientific community and the public. This session highlights IPAC’s approach to engagement through science visualizations, illustrations, and animations from the Science Engagement Lab at Caltech/IPAC (SELab) team; the NASA-IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP); citizen science initiatives; and efforts to make data archives open and equitably accessible. We showcase the Sagan Summer Workshop, a free annual workshop that draws more than 1,000 participants worldwide and fosters collaboration and community building. We discuss lessons learned from these programs and explore future approaches for sustaining and expanding meaningful community engagement. As the landscape shifts to more online events and data archives shift to be more cloud-based with at least some analysis done in the cloud, the nature of community engagement in astronomy is changing, and innovations in reaching more people more effectively will be required.

Talks in this session:

• 2:00 to 2:10 p.m. - 411.01 The Science Engagement Lab at IPAC - presented by Gordon Squires (Caltech/IPAC-SELab)
• 2:10 to 2:20 p.m. - 411.02 The Astropix Archive - presented by Robert Hurt (Caltech/IPAC-SELab)
• 2:20 to 2:30 p.m. - 411.03 Lessons Learned from Citizen Science Initiatives at IPAC - presented by J. Davy Kirkpatrick (Caltech/IPAC)
• 2:30 to 2:40 p.m. - 411.04 The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Project (NITARP) - presented by Luisa Rebull (Caltech/IPAC-IRSA)
• 2:40 to 2:50 p.m. - 411.05 NED - presented by Marion Schmitz (Caltech/IPAC-NED)
• 2:50 to 3:00 p.m. - 411.06 NExScI: Engaging the Exoplanet Community - presented by Jessie Christiansen (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)
• 3:00 to 3:10 p.m. - 411.07 The Sagan Summer Workshop - presented by Elise Furlan (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)
• 3:10 to 3:20 p.m. - 411.08 Building User Support for Fornax: Community Engagement for Cloud-Based Astrophysics - presented by Vandana Desai (Caltech/IPAC-IRSA)
• 3:20 to 3:30 p.m. - 411.09 VO Community Outreach at IPAC - presented by G. Berriman (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

412 - The Euclid Mission: Science Highlights and Preparation for Data Release 1 (Special session)

Session Chair: Harry Teplitz (Caltech/IPAC)

2:00 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom G

Euclid is an ESA mission with NASA participation to study the geometry and nature of the dark Universe. During its 6 year mission, Euclid will survey about 14,000 sq. deg. of extragalactic sky and obtain images in the optical (530-920nm band) and near-infrared (Y,J,H), together with slitless grism spectra (1206nm-1892nm, R~480). Euclid launched on 1 July 2023, and as of February 2026, it has surveyed more than 5000 square degrees. Quick Data Release 1 (Q1; 63 sq.deg.) data became public on March 19, 2025. Quick Data Release 2 (4.8 sq. degrees), which provides the Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey (which includes the Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey field), will be available in June 24, 2026. The full first year of data will be released in Data Release 1 (DR1; almost 2000 sq. deg.) in October 2026. Euclid data are available from the ESA’s Euclid Archive System and from the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA).

In this session, we will describe the current status of the Euclid mission and plans for upcoming data releases. Contributed talks will present science results from publicly available data. We will also provide updates to the community about IRSA’s plans for access and analysis of DR1 data, as well as future NASA opportunities for archival research with Euclid data.

Talks in this session:

• 2:55 to 3:20 p.m. - 412.04 Euclid DR1 Plans for the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) - presented by Vandana Desai (Caltech/IPAC)

413.05 IRSA's LLM Assistants

2:20 to 2:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom A

The Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) at IPAC hosts an extensive collection of astronomical datasets, along with programmatic interfaces and powerful search and visualization tools. While expert users can effectively leverage these capabilities, many others can struggle to navigate and parse the expansive documentation, understand mission-specific data structures, or construct complex queries. Large language models (LLMs) present an opportunity to lower this barrier to entry, while still maintaining the depth of the existing interfaces and documentation. To this end, we are developing prototype LLM-based assistants built on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and OpenAI models. Thus far we have focused on two specific areas, the SPHEREx mission and Table Access Protocol (TAP) queries, but hope to expand these prototypes to other aspects of IRSA (and other IPAC archives).

TAP queries underlie many of IRSA’s tools and are a powerful means for users to interact with our data tables using any VO-compliant TAP tool. Our prototype aims to take natural language queries from users, e.g., “How do I retrieve all WISE sources brighter than X?”, and generate the TAP query string. The key challenge is that user queries are often underspecified, especially given that IRSA hosts hundreds of tables with many thousands of unique column names. We are continuing to tune this prototype, but have found that providing a highly structured framework for the LLM, along with access to table-specific documentation, greatly mitigates this pitfall.

SPHEREx is a recent, ongoing mission with complex data products. Many users are just beginning to learn about these data and how to access them with IRSA’s tools. By providing a chat interface that can rapidly answer basic questions about the data, or link users directly to the most pertinent part(s) of the documentation for more complex queries, we aim to minimize the gradient of the learning curve and maximize the uptake of this new public dataset. Narrowing the scope of the LLM to a specific mission greatly improves the reliability of the RAG and reduces hallucinations, while also allowing us to use older models which should help to avoid spiralling costs.

Presented by Michael Jones with  Vandana Desai, Rachel Akeson and Sathya Vemulapalli (Caltech/IPAC) 

414 - Extragalactic Astronomy II

Session Chair: David Cook (Caltech/IPAC)

2:00 to 3:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Ballroom C

Posters

All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Monday, June 15

103.09 Revealing a Main-sequence Star that Consumed a Planet with JWST

9:00 to 10:00 a.m.,  Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

The subluminous red nova (SLRN) Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) SLRN-2020 is the most compelling direct detection of a planet being consumed by its host star, a scenario known as a planetary engulfment event. We present JWST spectroscopy of ZTF SLRN-2020 taken +830 days after its optical emission peak using the NIRSpec fixed-slit 3–5 μm high-resolution grating and the MIRI 5–12 μm low-resolution spectrometer. NIRSpec reveals the 12CO fundamental band (ν = 1–0) in emission at ~4.7 μm, Brackett-α emission, and the potential detection of PH3 in emission at ~4.3 μm. The JWST spectra are consistent with the claim that ZTF SLRN-2020 arose from a planetary engulfment event. We utilize DUSTY to model the late-time ~1–12 μm spectral energy distribution (SED) of ZTF SLRN-2020, where the best-fit parameters indicate the presence of warm circumstellar dust at 720 (+80/-50) K, with a total dust mass of Log(Md/M☉) = -10.61 (+0.08/-0.16). We also fit a DUSTY model to archival photometry taken +320 days after the peak that suggested the presence of a cooler circumstellar dust component at Td = 280 (+450/-20) K and a larger dust mass of Log(Md/M☉) = -5.89 (+0.29/-3.21). Assuming the cool component originates from the ZTF SLRN-2020 ejecta, we interpret the warm component as fallback from the ejecta. From the late-time SED model, we measure a luminosity of L* = 0.29 (+0.03/-0.06) L☉ for the remnant host star, which is consistent with a ~0.7 M☉ K-type star that should not yet have evolved off the main sequence. If ZTF SLRN-2020 was not triggered by stellar evolution, we suggest that the planetary engulfment was due to orbital decay from tidal interactions between the planet and the host star.

Presented by Ryan Lau (Caltech/IPAC) with Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC) et al. 

125.06 A Web-Based Quality-Assurance System for NEO Surveyor Data Products

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.,  Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

Tuesday, June 16

222.04 New Users of the Montage Image Mosaic Engine

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

The Montage Image mosaic engine continues to find applicability within modern astronomy research in astronomy. Recent papers describe its use in SPHEREx and JWST analysis. Altogether, since 2008, over 600 peer-reviewed papers across the electromagnetic spectrum cite Montage. This is a consequence of the highly scalable ANSI-C toolkit design for processing and wide-area FITS 2D and 3D imaging data while retaining astrometric and calibration fidelity of the input data. The sky background rectification engine and reprojection engine remain, to our knowledge, the most powerful such engines in astronomy. Python binary extensions have brought Montage into modern Python programming. The radio community are exploiting Montage: SKA-precursor projects (MeerKAT, MWA,..._) have integrated Montage into their processing environments and the CASDA archive has dapted the image cutout service to support cutouts at scale. Within computer science, Montage is considered a gold-standard application for developing advanced cyber-infrastructure, with 1,700+ citations. Finally, agentic AI is proving a powerful tool for resolving complex user trouble reports.

Presented by G. Berriman (Caltech/IPAC-NExScI)

226.05 Clumpy Disk or Merger? Spectroscopic Confirmation of a z~1 Galaxy Pair at 5 kpc Separation

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

We present an optical+infrared analysis of "lil gal," a z~1 galaxy system serendipitously discovered in JWST MIRI images, which initially showed a single spiral morphology but split into two peaks in the F1500W band, raising questions about its nature as a clumpy disk or a merger. To settle this, we combined JWST and HST photometry (zphot ~0.92) with Keck NIRES and KCWI spectroscopy. The NIRES data were definitive, resolving two distinct sets of [N II] and Hα emission lines at z=0.9248 and z=0.9225, which unequivocally confirms the source as a merging galaxy pair with a projected separation of ∼5 kpc. Emission line diagnostics further classify the system as hosting active, merger-induced star formation. These results underscore the necessity of resolved spectroscopic follow-up to correctly differentiate between merging systems and clumpy disks in deep JWST fields at cosmic noon.

Presented by Vivian U with Justin Kader (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

226.07 Survival of molecular gas in the inter-group halo and shock in Stephan's Quintet with JWST and ALMA

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

We present, for the first time, JWST MIRI MRS spectroscopy and new high-resolution CO ALMA observations of turbulent molecular gas in the hot halo of the Stephan's Quintet compact group. We show the remarkable ability of molecular hydrogen to survive an 800 km/s shock wave caused by the intruder galaxy NGC 7318b colliding with pre-existing gas in the group medium. For the first time we can study the spatio-kinematics of both the warm H2 emission (with JWST) and the cold gas with ALMA at the same spatial scale (100 pc) in the giant intergalactic filament. The results show a remarkable difference in the kinematics of the cold gas with respect to the warm gas in spatially correlated clumps. The cold CO emitting gas is restricted to a narrow range of velocities (mainly associated with the intruder) whereas gas that is increasing excited (various warm H2 components and ionized gas) are seen to be increasing decelerated in the rest frame of the shock. Warm gas is seen primarily at the two velocity extremes in the group (the intruder velocity and the group velocity) with only 20 percent of the gas fully decelerated. The decelerated gas, seen at intermediate velocities, has a very large velocity dispersion of hundreds of km/s suggesting very turbulent material. The fact that the majority of the warm (shocked) H2 lies close to the velocity extremes suggests that it has survived the collision without being destroyed. We suggest one possibility is that this warm gas has survived because the cold gas has developed a mixing layer on its surface as it interacts with the hot X-ray gas (an apparent wind) heated in the collision. The lifetime of these clouds is estimated to be between 10 and 40 Myrs based on the length of streamers of gas emanating from the clumps.

Presented by Philip Appleton (Caltech/IPAC) with George Helou (Caltech/IPAC) et al.

Wednesday, June 17

304 Small-Body Discovery with NEO Surveyor

9:00 to 10:00 a.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

Posters in this session:

• 304.01 The Near-Earth Object Surveyor Survey Data System (NSDS): Daily Pipeline Operations - presented by Sergio Fajardo-Acosta (Caltech /IPAC) and the NEO Surveyor Team at IPAC
• 304.02 NEO Surveyor Data Archiving Plan - presented by Joseph Masiero with Faria Chowdhury, Sean Carey (Caltech/IPAC) and Amy Mainzer, University of California, Los Angeles
• 304.03 The NEO Surveyor Position Reconstruction Subsystem: design and astrometric performance - presented by Federico Marocco with Sean Carey, Davy Kirkpatrick, Cate Liu, Kenneth Marsh, Frank Masci, Joseph Masiero, David Shupe, Jason Surace, Teresa Symons (Caltech/IPAC) and the NEO Surveyor Team
• 304.04 Using NEO Surveyor to identify possible planetesimal collisions - presented by Sean Carey with the NEO Surveyor Science Data Center Team (Caltech/IPAC) et al.
• 304.05 NEO Surveyor Science Image Simulator - presented by Cate Liu with Jason Surace, Sean Carey, Federico Marocco, Frank Masci,  and Joseph Masiero (Caltech/IPAC)
• 304.06 Multiband Detection for the NEO Surveyor Survey Data System - presented by David Shupe with Kenneth Marsh, Frank Masci, Teresa Symons, Sean Carey, Cate Liu, Federico Marocco,  Joseph Masiero,  Jason Surace (Caltech/IPAC)
• 304.07 Optimizing the Moving Object Detection Pipeline for the NEO Surveyor Mission - presented by Ishan Mishra with Joseph Masiero, Frank Masci, Cate Liu, and Sean Carey (Caltech/IPAC)
• 304.08 Source Photometry and PSF Estimation for the NEO Surveyor Survey Data System - presented by  Teresa Symons with Kenneth Marsh, Frank Masci, David Shupe,  Sean Carey, Cate Liu, Federico Marocco, Joseph Masiero, and Jason Surace (Caltech/IPAC)

328.05 An Overview of the Roman GBTDS MSOS Pipelines: Detection Efficiency and Data Quality Assessment

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

One of the community surveys to be conducted by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is the Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS), which will produce high-cadence imaging of a ~1.7 square degree area near the center of the Milky Way and for a Galactic Center field. The Science Support Center (SSC) at IPAC is responsible for the Microlensing Science Operations System (MSOS) and will produce the high-level data products from the GBTDS. We present details for two of the components of the MSOS pipeline: the microlensing detection efficiency (DE) and the data quality assessment (DQA). We describe the methods that will be performed by the DE pipeline, including pixel-level injection, light-curve-level injection, and the Rhie method. In addition, we will present the DQA that will be performed on the photometry data products. For both pipelines, we provide information on the data products that will be delivered to the community via the Roman archive at MAST.

Presented by Rachel Akeson with Kyle Finner, Alex Stukalov, Jennifer Sobeck, Keto Zhang, Wanggi Lim, Luke Bouma, Sebastiano Calchi Novati, Emmanuel Joliet, Io Kleiser, and Stela Ishitani Silva (Caltech/IPAC)

328.06 MSOS Photometry Pipeline for the Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center - Exhibit Halls & Ballrooms, Exhibit Hall A

The Roman Space Telescope Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS) will produce high-cadence imaging of a ~1.7 square degree area near the center of the Milky Way and for a Galactic Center field. The Science Support Center (SSC) at IPAC is responsible for the Microlensing Science Operations System (MSOS), which will process the data from the GBTDS. We present the MSOS Photometry Pipeline responsible to process input Roman WFI Level-2 data (the calibrated detector rate images) to produce Level-3 (re-pixelated coadded images) and Level-4 (catalogs) photometry products. We present preliminary results based on simulated data and provide information on the design of the data products which will be delivered to the community.

Presented by Sebastiano Calchi Novati with Rachel Akeson,  Luke Bouma, Kyle Finner, Wanggi Lim, Stela Ishitani Silva,  and Jennifer Sobeck (Caltech/IPAC)