BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. I. Survey Design and Initial Results

Abstract We introduce the Bias-free Extragalactic Analysis for Cosmic Origins with NIRCam (BEACON) survey, a JWST Cycle 2 program allocated up to 600 pure-parallel hours of observations. BEACON explores high-latitude areas of the sky with JWST/NIRCam over ∼100 independent sight lines, totaling ∼0.3 deg 2 , reaching a median F444W depth of ≈28.2 AB mag (5 σ ). Based on existing JWST observations in legacy fields, we estimate that BEACON will photometrically identify 25–150 galaxies at z > 10 and 500–1000 at z ∼ 7–10 uniquely enabled by an efficient multiple filter configuration spanning 0.9–5.0 μ m. The expected sample size of z > 10 galaxies will allow us to obtain robust number density estimates and to discriminate between different models of early star formation. In this paper, we present an overview of the survey design and initial results using the first 19 fields. We present 129 galaxy candidates at z ≳7 identified in those fields, including 11 galaxies at z ≳10 and several UV-luminous ( M UV < −21 mag) galaxies at z ∼ 8. The number densities of z < 13 galaxies inferred from the initial fields are overall consistent with those in the literature. Despite reaching a considerably large volume (∼10 5 Mpc 3 ), however, we find no galaxy candidates at z > 13, providing us with a complimentary insight into early galaxy evolution with minimal cosmic variance. We publish imaging and catalog data products for these initial fields. Upon survey completion, all BEACON data will be coherently processed and distributed to the community along with catalogs for redshift and other physical quantities.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2025-04-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adbbdc
Citations
14
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.17
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article

BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. I. Survey Design and Initial Results

Matthew Hayes, Guido Roberts-Borsani, Maruša Bradač, Benedetta Vulcani et al.
14 citations
The Astrophysical Journal
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
16.17
article

BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. I. Survey Design and Initial Results

Matthew Hayes, Guido Roberts-Borsani, Maruša Bradač, Benedetta Vulcani, Yannick M Bahé, Marc Rafelski, Harry I. Teplitz, Nicha Leethochawalit, Charlotte Mason, Anahita Alavi, Tommaso Treu, Andrew B. Newman, Tadayuki Kodama, Larry Bradley, Dan Coe, Michael J. Rutkowski, Takahiro Morishita, Vihang Mehta, Benjamin Metha, Matthew A. Malkan, Xin Wang, Hakim Atek, James Colbert, Viola Gelli, M. Stiavelli, Andrew J. Bunker, Michele Trenti, Claudia Scarlata, Tucker Jones, Kimi C. Kreilgaard, Kazue Takahashi, Yechi Zhang, Zhaoran Liu, Ryo A. Sutanto, no-firstname Abdurro’uf
article en
14 citations

Abstract

Abstract We introduce the Bias-free Extragalactic Analysis for Cosmic Origins with NIRCam (BEACON) survey, a JWST Cycle 2 program allocated up to 600 pure-parallel hours of observations. BEACON explores high-latitude areas of the sky with JWST/NIRCam over ∼100 independent sight lines, totaling ∼0.3 deg 2 , reaching a median F444W depth of ≈28.2 AB mag (5 σ ). Based on existing JWST observations in legacy fields, we estimate that BEACON will photometrically identify 25–150 galaxies at z > 10 and 500–1000 at z ∼ 7–10 uniquely enabled by an efficient multiple filter configuration spanning 0.9–5.0 μ m. The expected sample size of z > 10 galaxies will allow us to obtain robust number density estimates and to discriminate between different models of early star formation. In this paper, we present an overview of the survey design and initial results using the first 19 fields. We present 129 galaxy candidates at z ≳7 identified in those fields, including 11 galaxies at z ≳10 and several UV-luminous ( M UV < −21 mag) galaxies at z ∼ 8. The number densities of z < 13 galaxies inferred from the initial fields are overall consistent with those in the literature. Despite reaching a considerably large volume (∼10 5 Mpc 3 ), however, we find no galaxy candidates at z > 13, providing us with a complimentary insight into early galaxy evolution with minimal cosmic variance. We publish imaging and catalog data products for these initial fields. Upon survey completion, all BEACON data will be coherently processed and distributed to the community along with catalogs for redshift and other physical quantities.

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 983(2)
University of Geneva (CH), California Institute of Technology (US), University of Copenhagen (DK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Minnesota (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), Minnesota State University, Mankato (US), University of Ljubljana (SI), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Stockholm University (SE), The University of Melbourne (AU), Carnegie Institution for Science (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Tohoku University (JP), Beijing Normal University (CN), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), ASTRO-3D (AU), Twin Cities Orthopedics (US), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Carnegie Observatories (US), AlbaNova (SE), Damien Foundation (BD), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (IT), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (US), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), University of California, Davis (US), National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (TH)
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Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
16.17
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