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| COSMOS-Web | |
|---|---|
| Name | COSMOS-Web |
| Mission type | Space telescope survey |
| Operator | National Aeronautics and Space Administration / Space Telescope Science Institute |
| Launch | James Webb Space Telescope |
| Wavelength | Near-infrared, Mid-infrared |
| Instruments | Near Infrared Camera, Mid-Infrared Instrument |
| Area | 0.54 square degrees |
| Goals | High-redshift galaxy evolution, cosmic structure |
COSMOS-Web is a large-area extragalactic imaging program executed with the James Webb Space Telescope. Designed to map a contiguous field on scales comparable to legacy surveys such as COSMOS (survey), the program connects deep imaging from facilities including Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, and ground-based observatories such as Subaru Telescope, Keck Observatory, Very Large Telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Very Large Array. The survey underpins multiwavelength studies linking surveys like Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Dark Energy Survey, and Herschel Space Observatory catalogs to JWST-resolution data, leveraging synergies with programs such as CANDELS, GOODS, UltraVISTA, and CFHTLS.
COSMOS-Web covers approximately 0.54 square degrees using Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) imaging to create one of the widest high-resolution maps in the near- and mid-infrared. The survey field overlaps legacy footprints including COSMOS (field), HST GOODS-North, and fields targeted by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam and Spitzer SERVS, enabling cross-comparison with catalogs from GALEX, WISE, Planck, and H-ATLAS. The observational design balances depth and area to probe rare objects similar to those targeted by Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog and by deep programs like Hubble Ultra Deep Field while maintaining statistical power comparable to CANDELS and 3D-HST.
The principal aims include measuring the assembly of massive galaxies and proto-clusters at redshifts z > 3, quantifying the faint-end slope of the luminosity function at z ≈ 6–10, and mapping large-scale structure to test models from Lambda-CDM cosmology and simulations such as IllustrisTNG, EAGLE, and Millennium Simulation. The survey constrains stellar mass growth, star-formation histories, and feedback processes relevant to works from Kennicutt–Schmidt law studies and theoretical frameworks by groups led at institutions like Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. COSMOS-Web also targets obscured black hole growth traced by comparisons with Chandra Deep Field AGN samples and spectroscopic redshift programs from DEIMOS and VIMOS campaigns.
Observations employ NIRCam filters spanning ~0.9–5 μm and MIRI at longer wavelengths, matched to instrument modes developed by teams at Space Telescope Science Institute, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and European Space Agency. The strategy integrates parallel-mode observations optimizing survey efficiency, comparable to methodologies used in Hubble Frontier Fields and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82. Exposure times were chosen to achieve depths comparable to Ultra Deep Survey limits in aggregated bands, while enabling detection of rare, massive galaxies akin to those found in ZF-1 and luminous quasars cataloged by Pan-STARRS1. The dithering and tiling patterns reflect lessons from CANDELS mosaics and calibration pipelines refined from JWST Early Release Observations.
Data reduction follows pipelines standardized by the Space Telescope Science Institute and community tools developed at institutions such as European Southern Observatory and National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. Products include drizzled mosaics, multiwavelength photometric catalogs, photometric redshifts cross-validated with spectroscopic samples from Keck DEIMOS, VLT FORS2, and Subaru FMOS, and value-added products like stellar-mass estimates using SED fitting codes developed at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and University of California, Berkeley. Ancillary data linkages incorporate catalogs from COSMOS2015, SERVS, SPLASH, Herschel PEP/HerMES, and X-ray source lists from Chandra COSMOS-Legacy Survey. Public releases follow precedents set by SDSS Data Release and Hubble Legacy Archive.
Early findings include identification of candidate galaxies at z > 10 analogous to sources reported in GN-z11 studies, refined measurements of the stellar-mass function at z = 3–8 comparable to constraints from ZFOURGE and UltraVISTA, and discoveries of compact quiescent galaxies reminiscent of those discussed in Barro et al. analyses. The survey has uncovered overdensities consistent with proto-clusters similar to those associated with SSA22 and confirmed obscured AGN counterparts to sources in COSMOS X-ray catalogs. Results have been compared against predictions from IllustrisTNG and EAGLE, informing feedback prescriptions used by modelers at Princeton University and Caltech. Cross-matches with ALMA have yielded dust-continuum detections that refine star-formation rate density estimates akin to those from SCUBA-2 and Herschel.
COSMOS-Web is administered by teams spanning institutions including Space Telescope Science Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Arizona, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, and international partners at European Space Agency member institutes. The survey strategy coordinates with spectroscopic follow-up efforts from Keck Observatory, Very Large Telescope, Gemini Observatory, and community programs such as MOONS and PFS to secure redshifts and emission-line diagnostics. Collaborative frameworks mirror consortium approaches used by CANDELS and COSMOS (survey), with working groups focused on photometry, morphology, environment, AGN, and high-redshift candidates.
COSMOS-Web establishes a wide, deep infrared legacy dataset that complements legacy surveys like HST Frontier Fields, GOODS, and SDSS by providing JWST-resolution imaging over degree scales, enabling statistical studies of environment and rare object populations. The dataset informs future programs with Roman Space Telescope and ground-based facilities such as Thirty Meter Telescope and Extremely Large Telescope, and serves as a training set for machine-learning pipelines from groups at Google DeepMind-adjacent academic collaborations and university centers of excellence. Its catalogs will underpin investigations into galaxy formation, black hole coevolution, and cosmic reionization comparable in long-term value to datasets from Hubble Space Telescope archives and large surveys like Euclid and LSST (Vera C. Rubin Observatory).
Category:James Webb Space Telescope surveys