A Morphology Catalog of Galaxies in CEERS: Evolution in the Size and Color Gradients of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn

Abstract We present measurements of morphological parameters from fitting 53,885 galaxies detected to a magnitude limit of F356W < 28.5 in the CEERS NIRCam imaging with galfit in six broadband filters: F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, and F444W. We provide a public catalog of Sérsic indices, effective semimajor axes, axis ratios, integrated magnitudes, and position angles for these galaxies in each of the filters. Uncertainties in the measured parameters are estimated from simulated galaxies that have similar noise and background properties as the observed galaxies. We compare our measurements with those in the CANDELS/Extended Groth Strip field measured with Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 and find that the sizes agree to within 0.09 dex and the Sérsic indices agree to within 0.13 dex. We further present the evolution in the size–mass relation, and find that the evolution to z ∼ 9 is consistent with previous results derived at lower redshift. Finally, we look at the color gradients of galaxies at 1 < z < 5 and find that for late-type galaxies ( n < 2.5), there is a strong dependence on mass, but no apparent evolution with redshift, indicating that the stellar populations and dust attenuation in more massive galaxies vary substantially with radius and contribute to significant morphological k -corrections. For early-type galaxies ( n > 2.5), the color gradients are nearly flat with no dependence on mass, indicating that the stellar populations are more uniform throughout. The structural measurements presented are accurate to 20% or better for most galaxies with F356W < 27.0 mag and will enable further studies of galaxy morphology to z ∼ 10.

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Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Published
2026-02-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae3da2
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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article
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article

A Morphology Catalog of Galaxies in CEERS: Evolution in the Size and Color Gradients of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn

Giovanni Gandolfi, Luca Costantin, Eric F. Bell, Kelcey Davis et al.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

A Morphology Catalog of Galaxies in CEERS: Evolution in the Size and Color Gradients of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn

Giovanni Gandolfi, Luca Costantin, Eric F. Bell, Kelcey Davis, A. Fontana, Allison Kirkpatrick, Guillermo Barro, Nor Pirzkal, Isa G. Cox, Lisa J. Kewley, Andrea Grazian, Norman A. Grogin, Jennifer M. Lotz, Antonello Calabrò, Laura Pentericci, Micaela B. Bagley, Ray A. Lucas, Fernando Buitrago, Michaela Hirschmann, Steven L. Finkelstein, Guang Yang, Yingjie Cheng, Dale D. Kocevski, Henry C. Ferguson, L. Y. Aaron Yung, Jonathan R. Trump, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Bahram Mobasher, Anton M. Koekemoer, Viraj Pandya, Casey Papovich, Elizabeth J. McGrath, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Benne W. Holwerda, Pablo Arrabal Haro, Stephen M. Wilkins, Xin Wang, Swara Ravindranath, Mark Dickinson, Rachel S. Somerville, Yuchen Guo, Nimish P. Hathi, Ricardo O. Amorín
article en

Abstract

Abstract We present measurements of morphological parameters from fitting 53,885 galaxies detected to a magnitude limit of F356W < 28.5 in the CEERS NIRCam imaging with galfit in six broadband filters: F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, and F444W. We provide a public catalog of Sérsic indices, effective semimajor axes, axis ratios, integrated magnitudes, and position angles for these galaxies in each of the filters. Uncertainties in the measured parameters are estimated from simulated galaxies that have similar noise and background properties as the observed galaxies. We compare our measurements with those in the CANDELS/Extended Groth Strip field measured with Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 and find that the sizes agree to within 0.09 dex and the Sérsic indices agree to within 0.13 dex. We further present the evolution in the size–mass relation, and find that the evolution to z ∼ 9 is consistent with previous results derived at lower redshift. Finally, we look at the color gradients of galaxies at 1 < z < 5 and find that for late-type galaxies ( n < 2.5), there is a strong dependence on mass, but no apparent evolution with redshift, indicating that the stellar populations and dust attenuation in more massive galaxies vary substantially with radius and contribute to significant morphological k -corrections. For early-type galaxies ( n > 2.5), the color gradients are nearly flat with no dependence on mass, indicating that the stellar populations are more uniform throughout. The structural measurements presented are accurate to 20% or better for most galaxies with F356W < 27.0 mag and will enable further studies of galaxy morphology to z ∼ 10.

The Astrophysical Journal LettersVol. 999(1)
University of California, Riverside (US), Universidad de Valladolid (ES), University of the Pacific (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Woodwell Climate Research Center (US), Harvard University (US), University of Padua (IT), University of Connecticut (US), University of Lisbon (PT), University of Louisville (US), University of Kansas (US), Rochester Institute of Technology (US), University of Sussex (GB), University of America (US), University of Groningen (NL), University of Malta (MT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), Beijing Normal University (CN), Colby College (US), Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT), Mitchell Institute (US), Fundacion Agencia Aragonesa para la Investigacion y el Desarrollo (ES), Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (PT), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (ES), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), NSF NOIRLab (US), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES), Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (IT), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Flatiron Institute (US), Space Research Organisation Netherlands (NL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), University of La Serena (CL), Columbia University (US), The University of Texas at Austin (US), Texas A&M University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 44%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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