Future Science with the James Webb Space Telescope

Planned for launch in 2019 on an Ariane 5 from French Guiana, JWST will observe at wavelengths from 0.6 to 28 µm with a full suite of imagers, spectrometers, and coronagraphs. JWST will extend the discoveries of the Hubble and Spitzer observatories in all areas from cosmology, galaxies, stars, and exoplanets to our own Solar System. With a 6.5 m primary mirror it has a collecting area 7 times that of Hubble and 50 times that of Spitzer. The image quality is diffraction limited at 2 µm with near IR camera pixels of only 0.03 arcsec. I will outline the planned observing program, showing how the instrument capabilities enable new discoveries in new territories. What were the first objects that formed in the expanding universe? How do the galaxies grow? How are black holes made, ranging from stellar mass to supermassive, over a billion solar masses, and what is their effect on the neighborhood? How are stars and planetary system formed? What governs the evolution of planetary systems, with the possibility of life? How did the Earth become so special? But the most important discoveries will be those we have not even imagined today.