The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2022)
JWST PEARLS. Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science: Project Overview and First Results
- Rogier A. Windhorst,
- Seth H. Cohen,
- Rolf A. Jansen,
- Jake Summers,
- Scott Tompkins,
- Christopher J. Conselice,
- Simon P. Driver,
- Haojing Yan,
- Dan Coe,
- Brenda Frye,
- Norman Grogin,
- Anton Koekemoer,
- Madeline A. Marshall,
- Rosalia O’Brien,
- Nor Pirzkal,
- Aaron Robotham,
- Russell E. Ryan Jr.,
- Christopher N. A. Willmer,
- Timothy Carleton,
- Jose M. Diego,
- William C. Keel,
- Paolo Porto,
- Caleb Redshaw,
- Sydney Scheller,
- Stephen M. Wilkins,
- S. P. Willner,
- Adi Zitrin,
- Nathan J. Adams,
- Duncan Austin,
- Richard G. Arendt,
- John F. Beacom,
- Rachana A. Bhatawdekar,
- Larry D. Bradley,
- Tom Broadhurst,
- Cheng Cheng,
- Francesca Civano,
- Liang Dai,
- Hervé Dole,
- Jordan C. J. D’Silva,
- Kenneth J. Duncan,
- Giovanni G. Fazio,
- Giovanni Ferrami,
- Leonardo Ferreira,
- Steven L. Finkelstein,
- Lukas J. Furtak,
- Hansung B. Gim,
- Alex Griffiths,
- Heidi B. Hammel,
- Kevin C. Harrington,
- Nimish P. Hathi,
- Benne W. Holwerda,
- Rachel Honor,
- Jia-Sheng Huang,
- Minhee Hyun,
- Myungshin Im,
- Bhavin A. Joshi,
- Patrick S. Kamieneski,
- Patrick Kelly,
- Rebecca L. Larson,
- Juno Li,
- Jeremy Lim,
- Zhiyuan Ma,
- Peter Maksym,
- Giorgio Manzoni,
- Ashish Kumar Meena,
- Stefanie N. Milam,
- Mario Nonino,
- Massimo Pascale,
- Andreea Petric,
- Justin D. R. Pierel,
- Maria del Carmen Polletta,
- Huub J. A. Röttgering,
- Michael J. Rutkowski,
- Ian Smail,
- Amber N. Straughn,
- Louis-Gregory Strolger,
- Andi Swirbul,
- James A. A. Trussler,
- Lifan Wang,
- Brian Welch,
- J. Stuart B. Wyithe,
- Min Yun,
- Erik Zackrisson,
- Jiashuo Zhang,
- Xiurui Zhao
Affiliations
- Rogier A. Windhorst
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Seth H. Cohen
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Rolf A. Jansen
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Jake Summers
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Scott Tompkins
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Christopher J. Conselice
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Simon P. Driver
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Haojing Yan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri , Columbia, MO 65211, USA
- Dan Coe
- ORCiD
- AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Brenda Frye
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0009, USA
- Norman Grogin
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Anton Koekemoer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Madeline A. Marshall
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada , Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- Rosalia O’Brien
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Nor Pirzkal
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Aaron Robotham
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Russell E. Ryan Jr.
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Christopher N. A. Willmer
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0009, USA
- Timothy Carleton
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Jose M. Diego
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC) . Avenida. Los Castros s/n. E-39005 Santander, Spain
- William C. Keel
- ORCiD
- Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama , Box 870324, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404, USA
- Paolo Porto
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Caleb Redshaw
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Sydney Scheller
- ORCiD
- Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Stephen M. Wilkins
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex , Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK
- S. P. Willner
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel
- Nathan J. Adams
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Duncan Austin
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Richard G. Arendt
- ORCiD
- UMBC/CRESST2, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 21771, USA
- John F. Beacom
- ORCiD
- Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP), Department of Physics, Ohio State University , 191 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Rachana A. Bhatawdekar
- ORCiD
- European Space Agency, ESA/ESTEC , Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
- Larry D. Bradley
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Tom Broadhurst
- ORCiD
- Department of Theoretical Physics, University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU , E-48040 Bilbao, Spain; Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) , 20018 Donostia, The Basque Country, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science , Alameda Urquijo, 36-5 E-48008 Bilbao, Spain
- Cheng Cheng
- ORCiD
- Chinese Academy of Sciences , National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China
- Francesca Civano
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Liang Dai
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 366 Physics North MC 7300, University of California , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Hervé Dole
- ORCiD
- Université Paris-Saclay , CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, F-91405, Orsay, France
- Jordan C. J. D’Silva
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Kenneth J. Duncan
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy , Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
- Giovanni G. Fazio
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Giovanni Ferrami
- ORCiD
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia; School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- Leonardo Ferreira
- ORCiD
- University of Nottingham , School of Physics & Astronomy, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
- Steven L. Finkelstein
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Lukas J. Furtak
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel
- Hansung B. Gim
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Montana State University , P.O. Box 173840, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
- Alex Griffiths
- ORCiD
- University of Nottingham , School of Physics & Astronomy, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
- Heidi B. Hammel
- ORCiD
- Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy , Inc., 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 1475, Washington, DC 20004, USA
- Kevin C. Harrington
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Santiago de Chile, Chile
- Nimish P. Hathi
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Benne W. Holwerda
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY 40292, USA
- Rachel Honor
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Jia-Sheng Huang
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatories of China , A20 Datun Road, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- Minhee Hyun
- ORCiD
- SNU Astronomy Research Center, Astronomy program, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea; Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute , 776 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34055, Republic of Korea
- Myungshin Im
- ORCiD
- SNU Astronomy Research Center, Astronomy program, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
- Bhavin A. Joshi
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysical Sciences , Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Patrick S. Kamieneski
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Patrick Kelly
- ORCiD
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota , 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Rebecca L. Larson
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Juno Li
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Jeremy Lim
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
- Zhiyuan Ma
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Peter Maksym
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Giorgio Manzoni
- ORCiD
- Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Hong Kong S.A.R., People's Republic of China
- Ashish Kumar Meena
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel
- Stefanie N. Milam
- ORCiD
- Astrochemistry Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Code 691, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Mario Nonino
- ORCiD
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste , Via Bazzoni 2, I-34124 Trieste, Italy
- Massimo Pascale
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , 501 Campbell Hall #3411, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Andreea Petric
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Justin D. R. Pierel
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Maria del Carmen Polletta
- ORCiD
- INAF, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF) Milano , Via A. Corti 12, I-20133 Milan, Italy
- Huub J. A. Röttgering
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory , P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Michael J. Rutkowski
- ORCiD
- Minnesota State University-Mankato , Trafton North Science Center, Mankato, MN 56001, USA
- Ian Smail
- ORCiD
- Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Amber N. Straughn
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Louis-Gregory Strolger
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
- Andi Swirbul
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- James A. A. Trussler
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Lifan Wang
- ORCiD
- Texas A&M University/Physics and Astronomy , College Station, TX 77842-4242, USA
- Brian Welch
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysical Sciences , Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- J. Stuart B. Wyithe
- ORCiD
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia; School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- Min Yun
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Erik Zackrisson
- ORCiD
- Observational Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University , Box 516, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
- Jiashuo Zhang
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Xiurui Zhao
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aca163
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 165,
no. 1
p. 13
Abstract
We give an overview and describe the rationale, methods, and first results from NIRCam images of the JWST “Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science” (PEARLS) project. PEARLS uses up to eight NIRCam filters to survey several prime extragalactic survey areas: two fields at the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP); seven gravitationally lensing clusters; two high redshift protoclusters; and the iconic backlit VV 191 galaxy system to map its dust attenuation. PEARLS also includes NIRISS spectra for one of the NEP fields and NIRSpec spectra of two high-redshift quasars. The main goal of PEARLS is to study the epoch of galaxy assembly, active galactic nucleus (AGN) growth, and First Light. Five fields—the JWST NEP Time-Domain Field (TDF), IRAC Dark Field, and three lensing clusters—will be observed in up to four epochs over a year. The cadence and sensitivity of the imaging data are ideally suited to find faint variable objects such as weak AGN, high-redshift supernovae, and cluster caustic transits. Both NEP fields have sightlines through our Galaxy, providing significant numbers of very faint brown dwarfs whose proper motions can be studied. Observations from the first spoke in the NEP TDF are public. This paper presents our first PEARLS observations, their NIRCam data reduction and analysis, our first object catalogs, the 0.9–4.5 μ m galaxy counts and Integrated Galaxy Light. We assess the JWST sky brightness in 13 NIRCam filters, yielding our first constraints to diffuse light at 0.9–4.5 μ m. PEARLS is designed to be of lasting benefit to the community.
Keywords
