Dissecting Dust in the Distant Universe: A Panchromatic Study with JWST and ALMA

Descripción del proyecto

Un estudio más detallado del polvo cósmico para esclarecer la evolución de las galaxias

Las galaxias evolucionan a través de complejas interacciones entre sus componentes bariónicos, en particular el medio interestelar y su elemento básico, el polvo. El polvo afecta a todas las características de una galaxia, desde su aspecto a diferentes longitudes de onda a los procesos de formación estelar. Sin embargo, la comprensión del fenómeno del desplazamiento al rojo (más allá de las galaxias cercanas) del polvo es aún limitada, lo cual hace que no se conozca en detalle el proceso de formación del polvo y las propiedades del polvo. En el proyecto DistantDust, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se pretende colmar esta brecha del conocimiento utilizando el telescopio espacial James Webb. Mediante el análisis del polvo en épocas cósmicas cruciales, como el Mediodía Cósmico y el Universo Primitivo, junto con datos de observatorios terrestres, este proyecto contribuirá a mejorar nuestra comprensión de la formación estelar y de la evolución de las galaxias a lo largo del tiempo cósmico.

Objetivo

At the core of galaxy evolution is the evolution of the baryonic components that modify the observable properties of galaxies. A crucial component of the baryonic matter is the interstellar medium (ISM) that consists of gas and solid-phase metals called dust. Interstellar dust determines how galaxies look like from UV to IR, how the ISM behaves, and the very process of star formation that creates the stellar component that defines a galaxy. Despite our wealth of knowledge about dust in local galaxies, very little is known about the properties of dust grains, where it resides inside galaxies, and how it is formed, beyond the nearby Universe (i.e. at high redshifts). The fundamental importance of advancing our knowledge about dust at high redshifts is further underlined by the vital need to correct for its attenuation effects in the observed rest-frame UV/optical emission of high-redshift galaxies. This situation will fundamentally change in the next few years owing to the unprecedented capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This ERC program capitalizes on the massive technological advance of JWST to take a holistic approach, physically and observationally, and conduct a panchromatic study of dust emission and absorption properties at two key cosmic epochs:1) z~1-3, dubbed as Cosmic Noon, the peak epoch of cosmic star formation activity, and 2) z~5-10, the early Universe and the epoch of reionization. Owing to my leading role in multiple deep extragalactic JWST surveys, my ERC group will take full advantage of the very first data from this revolutionary observatory. This will be done in synergy with ALMA and other powerful ground-based observatories such as VLT and Keck to observe the attenuation and emission properties of dust from rest-frame UV to submm wavelengths at Cosmic Noon and beyond. This ambitious research program will bring novel key insight into the physical processes that enable star formation and galaxy evolution throughout cosmic time.