SO Webloquio: James Webb Space Telescope Capabilities for Planet and Exoplanet Observations

JWST, scheduled for launch in October, will bring a new generation of instruments, infrared detectors, and a passively cooled 6.5 m primary mirror to space-based astronomy. I will discuss its imaging and spectroscopic modes, which cover wavelengths from 0.6 - 28.5 microns, and the observatory's moving-target tracking, and coronagraphic and time-series modes for direct or transit observations of exoplanets. I will show some statistics for the proposals selected for execution during the first year of science, which were just announced, and briefly summarize progress of the observatory towards launch later this year.