Medium Bands, Mega Science: A JWST/NIRCam Medium-band Imaging Survey of A2744

Abstract In this paper, we describe the “Medium Bands, Mega Science” JWST Cycle 2 survey (JWST-GO-4111) and demonstrate the power of these data to reveal both the spatially integrated and spatially resolved properties of galaxies from the local Universe to the era of cosmic dawn. Executed in 2023 November, MegaScience obtained ∼30 arcmin 2 of deep multiband NIRCam imaging centered on the z ∼ 0.3 A2744 cluster, including 11 medium-band filters and the two shortest-wavelength broadband filters, F070W and F090W. Together, MegaScience and the UNCOVER Cycle 1 treasury program provide a complete set of deep (∼28–30 mag AB ) images in all NIRCam medium- and broadband filters. This unique data set allows us to precisely constrain photometric redshifts, map stellar populations and dust attenuation for large samples of distant galaxies, and examine the connection between galaxy structures and formation histories. MegaScience also includes ∼17 arcmin 2 of NIRISS parallel imaging in two broadband and four medium-band filters from 0.9 to 4.8 μ m, expanding the footprint where robust spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is possible. We provide example SEDs and multiband cutouts at a variety of redshifts, and use a catalog of JWST spectroscopic redshifts to show that MegaScience improves both the scatter and catastrophic outlier rate of photometric redshifts by factors of 2–3. Additionally, we demonstrate the spatially resolved science enabled by MegaScience by presenting maps of the [O iii ] line emission and continuum emission in three spectroscopically confirmed z > 6 galaxies. We show that line emission in reionization-era galaxies can be clumpy, extended, and spatially offset from continuum emission, implying that galaxy assembly histories are complex even at these early epochs. We publicly release fully reduced mosaics and photometric catalogs for both the NIRCam primary and NIRISS parallel fields ( jwst-uncover.github.io/megascience ).

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Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2024-11-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad75fe
Citations
46
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
15.25

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article

Medium Bands, Mega Science: A JWST/NIRCam Medium-band Imaging Survey of A2744

Pratika Dayal, Seiji Fujimoto, Mariska Kriek, Marijn Franx et al.
46 citations
The Astrophysical Journal
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
15.25
article

Medium Bands, Mega Science: A JWST/NIRCam Medium-band Imaging Survey of A2744

Pratika Dayal, Seiji Fujimoto, Mariska Kriek, Marijn Franx, Jorryt Matthee, Lukas J. Furtak, Rachel Bezanson, Danilo Marchesini, Gourav Khullar, Vasily Kokorev, Heath Shipley, Tim B. Miller, Sam E. Cutler, Richard Pan, Rohan P. Naidu, Jenny E. Greene, Ivo Labbé, Adam Muzzin, Themiya Nanayakkara, John R. Weaver, Ikki Mitsuhashi, David J. Setton, Christina C. Williams, Andy D. Goulding, Robert Feldmann, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Justin Spilker, Joel Leja, Pieter van Dokkum, Katherine A. Suess, Hakim Atek, Erica J. Nelson, Pascal A. Oesch, Brian Lorenz, Lamiya Mowla, Gabriel Brammer, Michael V. Maseda, Katherine E. Whitaker, Adi Zitrin, Renske Smit, Sedona H. Price, Anna de Graaff, Bingjie Wang
article en
46 citations

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we describe the “Medium Bands, Mega Science” JWST Cycle 2 survey (JWST-GO-4111) and demonstrate the power of these data to reveal both the spatially integrated and spatially resolved properties of galaxies from the local Universe to the era of cosmic dawn. Executed in 2023 November, MegaScience obtained ∼30 arcmin 2 of deep multiband NIRCam imaging centered on the z ∼ 0.3 A2744 cluster, including 11 medium-band filters and the two shortest-wavelength broadband filters, F070W and F090W. Together, MegaScience and the UNCOVER Cycle 1 treasury program provide a complete set of deep (∼28–30 mag AB ) images in all NIRCam medium- and broadband filters. This unique data set allows us to precisely constrain photometric redshifts, map stellar populations and dust attenuation for large samples of distant galaxies, and examine the connection between galaxy structures and formation histories. MegaScience also includes ∼17 arcmin 2 of NIRISS parallel imaging in two broadband and four medium-band filters from 0.9 to 4.8 μ m, expanding the footprint where robust spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is possible. We provide example SEDs and multiband cutouts at a variety of redshifts, and use a catalog of JWST spectroscopic redshifts to show that MegaScience improves both the scatter and catastrophic outlier rate of photometric redshifts by factors of 2–3. Additionally, we demonstrate the spatially resolved science enabled by MegaScience by presenting maps of the [O iii ] line emission and continuum emission in three spectroscopically confirmed z > 6 galaxies. We show that line emission in reionization-era galaxies can be clumpy, extended, and spatially offset from continuum emission, implying that galaxy assembly histories are complex even at these early epochs. We publicly release fully reduced mosaics and photometric catalogs for both the NIRCam primary and NIRISS parallel fields ( jwst-uncover.github.io/megascience ).

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 976(1)
Damien Foundation (BD)
Space Telescope Science Institute, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
15.25
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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