The First Glimpse of the First Galaxies with JWST
Rohan Naidu
MIT Kavli Institute, US
One of the last great unknowns in our history of the Universe is when and how the first galaxies emerged after the Big Bang. These galaxies transformed the cosmos -- they illuminated the invisible scaffolding of dark matter that underpins the Universe, they ionized the intergalactic reservoirs of hydrogen, and they synthesized the elements that would one day seed life on Earth. Thanks to JWST, these enigmatic galaxies are finally coming into view. In this talk I will present early JWST results on these systems, and preview upcoming Cycle 1 programs I am leading. I will discuss: (i) emerging constraints on the nature of the first galaxies both via direct searches for the most distant galaxies as well as via archaeological methods; (ii) outstanding questions around how these early galaxies reionized the Universe (e.g., was reionization driven by numerous faint galaxies, or by rare, bright ``oligarch" galaxies?), and the pathway to settle them with JWST.
Rohan Naidu is currently a NASA Hubble Fellow and Pappalardo Fellow at MIT. He received his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University, advised by Prof. Charlie Conroy, in May 2022. His thesis was focused on identifying and understanding the immigrant galaxies the Milky Way has assimilated using the H3 Survey and Gaia satellite. Prior to Harvard, Rohan received his bachelor's degree as part of the founding class of 150 students at Yale-NUS College, Singapore, Asia's first liberal arts college.
Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/pcw-gmem-jyi
Link da transmissão: https://www.youtube.com/c/AstronomiaIAGUSP/live