Exploring Cosmic Dawn with James Webb Space Telescope

HORIZON.1.1HORIZON-ERCID: 101053208
EC Contribution
€20,863
Consortium Size
1 orgs
▶Summary

The cosmic dark ages - when the Universe was filled with neutral hydrogen that was opaque to ultraviolet light - are thought to have ended around one billion years after the Big Bang, when first light sources produced enough energetic photons to ionize the neutral hydrogen. This phase is referred to as the epoch of reionization and is also the era of the first galaxies' formation. However, this is also one of the least understood epochs in the Universe's evolution. When did it start/end? Was it patchy or smooth? How did galaxies reionize the Universe (if they did)? What are the properties of the earliest galaxies? To answer these questions, this proposal will use deep observations of the largest sample of the most powerful cosmic telescopes that will be observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) right after its launch. Compared to all previous facilities, JWST’s capabilities are dazzling. Its instruments will provide data beyond those yet seen by any astronomer. However, with high power comes great responsibility. Given its limited lifetime, excellent leadership needs to be established. As a key member of the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) team with guaranteed time and a member of the Early Release Science program, I am in a unique position to guarantee success of this project. I am proposing to relocate to Europe. JWST's NIRISS instrument is not represented in Europe, and this program will bring immediate and proprietary access to the data. This proposal will (1) determine the timeline of reionization, (2) identify the exact role first galaxies played in this process by studying their ionized bubbles, and (3) determine stellar properties of the earliest galaxies. With an unprecedented facility, the program will undoubtedly bring many exciting discoveries and allow the first look at the details of the Cosmic Dawn.

Consortium (1)

🇸🇮 UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANISI
coordinator

Project Results (34)

Source: CORDIS, the EU research results database.

▶Publications (33)
A deep dive down the broad-line region: permitted O I, Ca II, and Fe II emission in an active galactic nucleus little red dot at z = 5.3
The Astrophysical journal. Letters· 2025DOI
Roberta Tripodi, Maruša Bradač, Francesco D’Eugenio, Nicholas Martis, Gregor Rihtaršič, Chris Willott, Laura Pentericci, Bianca Moreschini, Maxim Markevitch, Yoshihisa Asada, Antonello Calabró,
Anatomy of a z = 6 Lyman-α emitter down to parsec scales: Extreme UV slopes, metal-poor regions, and possibly leaking star clusters
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2025DOI
M. Messa, E. Vanzella, F. Loiacono, P. Bergamini, M. Castellano, B. Sun, C. Willott, R. A. Windhorst, H. Yan, G. Angora, P. Rosati, A. Adamo, F. Annibali, A. Bolamperti, M. Bradač, L. D. Bradley, F.
BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. I. Survey Design and Initial Results
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
CANUCS: Constraining the MACS J0416.1-2403 strong lensing model with JWST NIRISS, NIRSpec, and NIRCam
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2025DOI
CANUCS/Technicolor: JWST medium-band photometry finds half of the star formation at z > 7.5 is obscured
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
Nicholas S. Martis, Sunna Withers, Maruša Bradač, Adam Muzzin, Giordano Felicioni, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Gabe Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Anishya Harshan, Kartheik G. Iyer, Naadiyah Jagg
Improving Photometric Redshifts of Epoch of Reionization Galaxies: A New Empirical Transmission Curve with Neutral Hydrogen Damping Wing Lyα Absorption
The Astrophysical journal. Letters· 2025DOI
In Search of the First Stars: An Ultra-compact and Very-low-metallicity Lyα Emitter Deep within the Epoch of Reionization
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
JWST Photometry of Globular Cluster Populations in MACS0417.5−1154
The Astrophysical Journal· 2025DOI
William E. Harris, Marta Reina-Campos, Kaitlyn E. Keatley, Maruša Bradač, Nicholas S. Martis, Adam Muzzin, Gaël Noirot, Ghassan T. E. Sarrouh, Marcin Sawicki, Chris J. Willott, Samantha C. Berek
Metal-poor star-forming clumps in cosmic noon galaxies: evidence for gas inflow and chemical dilution using JWST NIRISS
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, Marcin Sawicki, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Maruša Bradač, Gabe Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Kartheik G. Iyer, Nicholas S. Martis, Adam Muzzin, Gaël Noirot, Gregor R
Nature Communications
Nature Communications· 2025DOI
Parallel application of slitless spectroscopy to analyze galaxy evolution (PASSAGE): survey overview
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
Matthew A. Malkan, Vihang Mehta, Ayan Acharyya, Hollis B. Akins, Anahita Alavi, Hakim Atek, Ivano Baronchelli, Andrew J. Battisti, Kit Boyett, Marusa Bradac, Sean Tyler Bruton, Andrew J. Bunker, Adam
Possible environmental quenching in an interacting little red dot pair at z ∼ 7
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2025DOI
Quantifying spectroscopic flux variations between JWST NIRISS and NIRSpec: slit losses in emission line measurements of z ∼ 1–3 galaxies
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2025DOI
Nicolò Dalmasso, Peter J Watson, Tommaso Treu, Michele Trenti, Benedetta Vulcani, Themiya Nanayakkara, Maruša Bradač, Tucker Jones, Kristan Boyett, Xin Wang, Sara Mascia, Laura Pentericci
Stacking PANCAKEZ: spectroscopic analysis with NIRSpec stacks in the epoch of reionization. Weak interstellar medium absorption and implications for ionizing photon escape at z ∼ 7
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
Kelsey S. Glazer, Tucker Jones, Yuguang Chen, Ryan L. Sanders, Maruša Bradač, Anthony J. Pahl, Alice E. Shapley, Richard S. Ellis, Michael W. Topping, Naveen A. Reddy
The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science programme: The NIRISS spectroscopic catalogue
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2025DOI
The JWST/PASSAGE Survey: Testing Reionization Histories with JWST’s First Unbiased Survey for Lyα Emitters at Redshifts 7.5–9.5
The Astrophysical journal· 2025DOI
Unveiling the trends between dust attenuation and galaxy properties at z ∼ 2−12 with the James Webb Space Telescope
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2025DOI
V. Markov, S. Gallerani, A. Pallottini, M. Bradač, S. Carniani, R. Tripodi, G. Noirot, F. Di Mascia, E. Parlanti, N. Martis
A massive interacting galaxy 510 million years after the Big Bang
Nature Astronomy· 2024DOI
Kristan Boyett, Michele Trenti, Nicha Leethochawalit, Antonello Calabró, Benjamin Metha, Guido Roberts-Borsani, Nicoló Dalmasso, Lilan Yang, Paola Santini, Tommaso Treu, Tucker Jones, Alaina Henry,
A Steep Decline in the Galaxy Space Density beyond Redshift 9 in the CANUCS UV Luminosity Function
The Astrophysical Journal· 2024DOI
Bursty star formation and galaxy–galaxy interactions in low-mass galaxies 1 Gyr after the Big Bang
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Yoshihisa Asada, Marcin Sawicki, Roberto Abraham, Maruša Bradač, Gabriel Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Vince Estrada-Carpenter, Kartheik Iyer, Nicholas Martis, Jasleen Matharu, Lamiya Mowla, Adam Muzz
CANUCS: An Updated Mass and Magnification Model of A370 with JWST
The Astrophysical Journal· 2024DOI
CANUCS: UV and ionizing properties of dwarf star-forming galaxies at z ~ 5–7
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Anishya Harshan, Maruša Bradač, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Gabriel Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Karthiek Iyer, Nicholas S Martis, Jasleen Matharu, Lamiya Mowla, Adam Muzzin, Gaël Noirot, Greg
Detailed Study of Stars and Gas in a z = 8.3 Massive Merger with Extreme Dust Conditions
The Astrophysical journal. Letters· 2024DOI
Formation of a low-mass galaxy from star clusters in a 600-million-year-old Universe
Nature· 2024DOI
Ly α emission strength and stellar properties of faint galaxies from 5 < z < 8.2
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Patricia Bolan, Marus̆a Bradač, Brian C. Lemaux, Victoria Strait, Tommaso Treu, Laura Pentericci, Debora Pelliccia, Kelsey Glazer, Gareth C. Jones
Modeling and Subtracting Diffuse Cluster Light in JWST Images: A Relation between the Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters, Dwarf Galaxies, and Intracluster Light in the Lensing Cluster SMACS 0723
The Astrophysical Journal· 2024DOI
Spatially resolved emission lines in galaxies at 4 ≤ z < 10 from the JADES survey: Evidence for enhanced central star formation
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2024DOI
Star Formation at the Epoch of Reionization with CANUCS: The Ages of Stellar Populations in MACS1149-JD1
The Astrophysical Journal Letters· 2024DOI
Maruša Bradač, Victoria Strait, Lamiya Mowla, Kartheik G. Iyer, Gaël Noirot, Chris Willott, Gabe Brammer, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Guillaume Desprez, Vince Estrada-Carpenter, Anishya Harsh
Studying [C II] emission in low-mass galaxies at z ~ 7
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Kelsey Glazer, Marus̆a Bradač, Ryan L Sanders, Seiji Fujimoto, Patricia Bolan, Andrea Ferrara, Victoria Strait, Tucker Jones, Brian C Lemaux, Livia Vallini, Russell Ryan
The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program : IV. Data release of 263 spectra from 245 unique sources
Astronomy & astrophysics· 2024DOI
The rate and contribution of mergers to mass assembly from NIRCam observations of galaxy candidates up to 13.3 billion years ago
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Nicolò Dalmasso, Antonello Calabrò, Nicha Leethochawalit, Benedetta Vulcani, Kristan Boyett, Michele Trenti, Tommaso Treu, Marco Castellano, Maruša Bradač, Benjamin Metha, Paola Santini
When, where, and how star formation happens in a galaxy pair at cosmic noon using CANUCS JWST/NIRISS grism spectroscopy
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, Marcin Sawicki, Gabe Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Maruša Bradač, Kartheik G Iyer, Nicholas S Martis, Jasleen Matharu, Lamiya Mowla, Adam M
ΛCDM not dead yet: massive high-z Balmer break galaxies are less common than previously reported
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society· 2024DOI
Guillaume Desprez, Nicholas S Martis, Yoshihisa Asada, Marcin Sawicki, Chris J Willott, Adam Muzzin, Roberto G Abraham, Maruša Bradač, Gabe Brammer, Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, Kartheik G Iyer, Jasle
▶Deliverables (1)
Data Management Plan
Data Management Plan