James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

JWST is the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. It has fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. JWST has four science instruments onboard: NIRCam, NIRSpec, MIRI and NIRISS. I am a team member of the NIRCam science team, which is conducting the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) - the largest survey for galaxies in the early universe. We peer back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first galaxies born after the Big Bang. By comparing the faintest, earliest galaxies to today's grand spirals and ellipticals, we will understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.

JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES)

The JADES program is executed by a collaboration composed of NIRSpec and NIRCam instrument team Guaranteed Time Observers (GTOs). This program will substantially redefine our understanding of the high redshift universe. JADES targets two well-studied fields, GOODS-N and GOODS-S because of the wealth of ancillary data and the low galactic and zodiacal backgrounds in these directions. The figure on the left summarizes the area covered in GOODS-S. With NIRSpec, we can take spectra of very faint galaxies (to AB=29 and beyond) out to 5μm; with NIRCam, we can obtain imaging of unprecedented depth with a resolution of 0.04−0.10" from the optical to 5μm; and with MIRI, we can complement NIRCam images at wavelengths longer than 5μm. Check out the survey paper for more details.

You can download the reduced data products here:
https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/jades

Key Science of JADES

When did the first galaxies form and the Dark Ages end?
Which sources reionize the Universe?
When did the first galaxies cease their star formation?
How did bulge and disk components in galaxies form?
What are the stellar populations of the first galaxies?

JWST Extragalactic Medium-band Survey (JEMS)

Together with Christina Williams and Michael Maseda, I am the PI of JEMS, which is the first public medium-band imaging survey carried out using JWST/NIRCam and NIRISS. These observations use ~2 micron and ~4 microm medium-band filters over 15.6 square arcminutes in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF). Our chosen filters create a JWST imaging survey in the UDF that enables novel analysis of a range of spectral features potentially across the redshift range of 0.3 < z < 20, including Paschen-a, Ha+[NII], and [OIII]+Hb emission at high spatial resolution. Check out the survey paper for more details.

You can download the reduced data products here:
https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/jems

Using the JEMS data in conjuncture with MUSE, we measured the ionizing photon production efficiency at z~6 for Lyman-alpha emitters, allowing us to place constraints on the wider galaxy populations driving reionization (Simmonds, Tacchella et al. 2023).

Other JWST programs

Beside JADES and JEMS, we are involved in a range of other JWST investigations:

The Stellar and Gas Content of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
(PI Belli incl. co-I Tacchella)
Unveiling the Redshift Frontier with JWST
(PIs Eisenstein & Maiolino incl. co-I Tacchella)
All the Little Things: Pop III Signatures & the Ionizing Photon Budget of Dwarf Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
(PIs Matthee & Naidu incl. co-I Tacchella)
Where Cosmic Dawn Breaks First: Mapping the Primordial Overdensity Powering a z~9 Ionized Bubble
(PI Naidu incl. co-I Tacchella)
Anatomy of an ionized bubble at z=6.6: Which galaxies reionized the Universe?
(PI Matthee incl. co-I Tacchella)
MAGNIF: Medium-band Astrophysics with the Grism of NIRCam in Frontier Fields
(PI Sun incl. co-I Tacchella)
What quenched the first massive quiescent galaxy? A comprehensive analysis from stellar kinematics to gas emission lines
(PI D'Eugenio incl. co-I Tacchella)
Resolving early galaxy disks at z~8 with NIRSpec-IFS
(PI Scholtz incl. co-I Tacchella)
A Pathfinder for JWST Spectroscopy: Deep High Spectral Resolution Maps of Galaxies over 1
(PI Kassin incl. co-I Tacchella)

Archival Proposals:

Data-Driven Wisp Templates and Flat Fields for NIRCam
(PI Johnson incl. co-I Tacchella)
Analyzing Giant Clumps in JWST Images of Star-Forming Galaxies to Constrain Feedback
(PI Guo incl. co-I Tacchella)
A Unique Characterization of Early Quenching in a Young, Transitional Cluster at z=1.84 with NGDEEP and JEMS
(PI Alberts incl. co-I Tacchella)
Preventing the Slit-Loss Catastrophe Using Flexible, Spatially Resolved Galaxy Models
(PI Leja incl. co-I Tacchella)

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