The Case for a James Webb Space Telescope Extragalactic Key Project

Understand

The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in less than three years is certain to bring a revolution in our understanding of many area of astrophysics, with one of the key goals being galaxy evolution.

• As the first proposals will be due in a little over two years, the time is ripe to take a holistic look at the science goals which the community would wish to accomplish with this observatory.
• Contrary to our experiences with the Hubble Space Telescope, which has now operated successfully for over two decades due to several timely servicing missions, the lifetime of JWST is finite and relatively short, with a lifetime requirement of five years, and a ten-year goal.
• Following the discussion session at the "Exploring the Universe with JWST" conference at ESA-ESTEC in October 2015, we highlight in this document the (non-local) extragalactic science goals for JWST.