Search Publications
Spectroscopic confirmation of four metal-poor galaxies at z = 10.3-13.2
Chevallard, Jacopo; Maseda, Michael V.; Carniani, Stefano +56 more
Finding and characterizing the first galaxies that illuminated the early universe at cosmic dawn is pivotal to understand the physical conditions and the processes that led to the formation of the first stars. In the first few months of operations, imaging from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been used to identify tens of candidates of g…
Stress testing ΛCDM with high-redshift galaxy candidates
Boylan-Kolchin, Michael
Early data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed a bevy of high-redshift galaxy candidates with unexpectedly high stellar masses. An immediate concern is the consistency of these candidates with galaxy formation in the standard ΛCDM cosmological model, wherein the stellar mass (M⋆) of a galaxy is limited by the availa…
Identification and properties of intense star-forming galaxies at redshifts z > 10
Maiolino, R.; Sun, F.; Egami, E. +53 more
Surveys with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered candidate galaxies in the first 400 Myr of cosmic time. Preliminary indications have suggested these candidate galaxies may be more massive and abundant than previously thought. However, without confirmed distances, their inferred properties remain uncertain. Here we identify four …
An Ice Age JWST inventory of dense molecular cloud ices
Egami, E.; McGuire, Brett A.; Sun, Fengwu +39 more
Icy grain mantles are the main reservoir of the volatile elements that link chemical processes in dark, interstellar clouds with the formation of planets and the composition of their atmospheres. The initial ice composition is set in the cold, dense parts of molecular clouds, before the onset of star formation. With the exquisite sensitivity of th…
A JWST transmission spectrum of the nearby Earth-sized exoplanet LHS 475 b
Sing, David K.; Lustig-Yaeger, Jacob; Fu, Guangwei +20 more
The critical first step in the search for life on exoplanets over the next decade is to determine whether rocky planets transiting small M-dwarf stars possess atmospheres and, if so, what processes sculpt them over time. Because of its broad wavelength coverage and improved resolution compared with previous instruments, spectroscopy with the James…
A rich hydrocarbon chemistry and high C to O ratio in the inner disk around a very low-mass star
Waters, L. B. F. M.; Olofsson, G.; Abergel, A. +43 more
Carbon is an essential element for life but how much can be delivered to young planets is still an open question. The chemical characterization of planet-forming disks is a crucial step in our understanding of the diversity and habitability of exoplanets. Very low-mass stars (less than 0.2 M⊙) are interesting targets because they host a…
Dilution of chemical enrichment in galaxies 600 Myr after the Big Bang
Heintz, Kasper E.; Brammer, Gabriel B.; Oesch, Pascal A. +10 more
The evolution of galaxies throughout the last 12 Gyr of cosmic time has followed a single, universal relation that connects star-formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses (M⋆) and chemical abundances. Deviation from this fundamental scaling relation would imply a drastic change in the processes that regulate galaxy evolution. Observations …
JWST molecular mapping and characterization of Enceladus' water plume feeding its torus
Villanueva, G. L.; Liuzzi, G.; Stansberry, J. +18 more
Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in our Solar System, having an active plume that is likely to be connected to a large liquid water sub-surface ocean. Using the sensitive near-infrared spectograph instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope, we searched for organic compounds and characterized the plume's composition and st…
Spatially resolved imaging of the inner Fomalhaut disk using JWST/MIRI
Rieke, George H.; Gáspár, András; Beichman, Charles +9 more
Planetary debris disks around other stars are analogous to the asteroid and Kuiper belts in the Solar System. Their structure reveals the configuration of small bodies and provides hints for the presence of planets. The nearby star Fomalhaut hosts one of the most prominent debris disks, resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer, Herschel and…
JWST/NIRCam detections of dusty subsolar-mass young stellar objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Hirschauer, Alec S.; Fahrion, Katja; Lenkić, Laura +23 more
Low-mass stars are the most numerous stellar objects in the Universe. Before the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we had limited knowledge of how planetary systems around low-mass stars could form at subsolar metallicities. Here we present JWST observations of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the metal-poor Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing a s…