Project description
Shedding light on the universe’s most profound mysteries
The birth of galaxies is a celestial enigma, shrouded in cosmic dust that obscures our view. This cosmic veil, extending to the dusty star formation in early galaxies, has thwarted our understanding of the universe’s most elusive moments. Although the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) made strides, even it could not pierce the dust to reveal the hidden secrets of young galaxies. With this in mind, the ERC-funded VOYAJ project aims to revolutionise our knowledge of the cosmos. Equipped with the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope and the imminent arrival of ALMA Bands 1 & 2, the project is on the cusp of uncovering the concealed stellar populations, and map essential CO emission lines.
Objective
The majority of the Universes star formation occurred shrouded in cosmic dust, making it extremely challenginghistoricallyto obtain a clear view of young (z2) galaxy assembly. While the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has already enabled significant progress including pioneering work by the PI to directly image this dusty star formation in early galaxies their existing stellar populations remain obscured. At the same time, our understanding of the molecular gas fueling that star formation is still limited to unresolved detections and/or biased tracers.
Fortunately, we are on the verge of a breakthrough with the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the imminent arrival of ALMA Bands 1&2. To this end, the PI has obtained a suite of competitive proprietary data on JWST, ALMA, and Band 1/2 pilot facilities. Fully capitalizing on this opportunity now requires a team of capable researchers. By leveraging this data and a novel resolved spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting technique, the proposed program will 1) reveal the hidden stellar populations in the dustiest young (z~2.5) galaxies for the first time, testing predictions from hierarchical galaxy formation; 2) detect and map the crucial CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission lines in a statistical sample of these same young galaxies, directly measuring their full cold gas reservoirs via state-of-the-art Bayesian modeling, and calibrating other less-well-understood gas tracers; and 3) push studies of dust and gas in galaxies to the earliest cosmic epochs (z>6.5) including detecting their molecular gas via CO(3-2)one of the key science goals for ALMA Band 1thus revealing how the most massive early galaxies grew so quickly. Given her demonstrated track record leading a group and the wealth of data secured, the PI is optimally placed to take advantage of this unique confluence of revolutionary instruments to provide a completely new view into how young galaxies built up their stellar masses.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.