scholarly journals Space Project for Astrophysical and Cosmological Exploration (SPACE), an ESA stand-alone mission and a possible contribution to the Origins Space Telescope

Author(s):  
Denis Burgarella ◽  
Andrew Bunker ◽  
Rychard Bouwens ◽  
Laurent Pagani ◽  
Jose Afonso ◽  
...  

AbstractWe propose a new mission called Space Project for Astrophysical and Cosmological Exploration (SPACE) as part of the ESA long term planning Voyage 2050 programme. SPACE will study galaxy evolution at the earliest times, with the key goals of charting the formation of the heavy elements, measuring the evolution of the galaxy luminosity function, tracing the build-up of stellar mass in galaxies over cosmic time, and finding the first super-massive black holes (SMBHs) to form. The mission will exploit a unique region of the parameter space, between the narrow ultra-deep surveys with HST and JWST, and shallow wide-field surveys such as the Roman Space Telescope and EUCLID, and should yield by far the largest sample of any current or planned mission of very high redshift galaxies at z > 10 which are sufficiently bright for detailed follow-up spectroscopy. Crucially, we propose a wide-field spectroscopic near-IR + mid-IR capability which will greatly enhance our understanding of the first galaxies by detecting and identifying a statistical sample of the first galaxies and the first supermassive black holes, and to chart the metal enrichment history of galaxies in the early Universe – potentially finding signatures of the very first stars to form from metal-free primordial gas. The wide-field and wavelength range of SPACE will also provide us a unique opportunity to study star formation by performing a wide survey of the Milky Way in the near-IR + mid-IR. This science project can be enabled either by a stand-alone ESA-led M mission or by an instrument for an L mission (with ESA and/or NASA, JAXA and other international space agencies) with a wide-field (sub-)millimetre capability at λ > 500 μm.

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S309) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Denis Burgarella ◽  
Toru Yamada ◽  
Giovanni Fazio ◽  
Marcin Sawicki

AbstractWISH is a new space science mission concept whose primary goal is to study the first galaxies in the early universe. The primary science goal of the WISH mission is to push the high-redshift frontier beyond the epoch of reionization by utilizing its unique imaging and spectrocopic capabilities and the dedicated survey strategy. WISH will be a 1.5m telescope equipped with a 1000 arcmin2 wide-field Near-IR camera to conduct unique ultra-deep and wide-area sky imaging surveys in the wavelength range 1 - 5 μm. A spectroscopic mode (Integral-Field Unit) in the same Near-IR range and with a field of view of 0.5 - 1 arcmin and a spectral resolution R = 1000 is also planned. The difference between WISH and EUCLID in terms of wavelength range explains why the former concentrates on the reionization period while the latter focuses on the universe at z < 3. WISH and JWST feature different instantaneous fields of view and are therefore also very complementary.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S319) ◽  
pp. 72-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Volonteri ◽  
Melanie Habouzit ◽  
Fabio Pacucci ◽  
Michael Tremmel

AbstractMassive black holes (MBHs) are nowadays recognized as integral parts of galaxy evolution. Both the approximate proportionality between MBH and galaxy mass, and the expected importance of feedback from active MBHs in regulating star formation in their host galaxies point to a strong interplay between MBHs and galaxies. MBHs must form in the first galaxies and be fed by gas in these galaxies, with continuous or intermittent inflows that, at times, can be larger than the Eddington rate. Feedback from supernovae and from the MBHs themselves modulates the growth of the first MBHs. While current observational data only probe the most massive and luminous MBHs, the tip of the iceberg, we will soon be able to test theoretical models of MBH evolution on more “normal” MBHs: the MBHs that are indeed relevant in building the population that we observe in local galaxies, including our own Milky Way.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-280
Author(s):  
Xuheng Ding ◽  
Tommaso Treu ◽  
Simon Birrer ◽  
Adriano Agnello ◽  
Dominique Sluse ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT One of the main challenges in using high-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to study the correlations between the mass of a supermassive black hole ($\mathcal {M}_{\rm BH}$) and the properties of its active host galaxy is instrumental resolution. Strong lensing magnification effectively increases instrumental resolution and thus helps to address this challenge. In this work, we study eight strongly lensed AGNs with deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, using the lens modelling code lenstronomy to reconstruct the image of the source. Using the reconstructed brightness of the host galaxy, we infer the host galaxy stellar mass based on stellar population models. $\mathcal {M}_{\rm BH}$ are estimated from broad emission lines using standard methods. Our results are in good agreement with recent work based on non-lensed AGNs, demonstrating the potential of using strongly lensed AGNs to extend the study of the correlations to higher redshifts. At the moment, the sample size of lensed AGNs is small and thus they provide mostly a consistency check on systematic errors related to resolution for non-lensed AGNs. However, the number of known lensed AGNs is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years, through dedicated searches in ground- and space-based wide-field surveys, and they may become a key diagnostic of black holes and galaxy co-evolution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A132 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. W. Holwerda ◽  
J. S. Bridge ◽  
R. Ryan ◽  
M. A. Kenworthy ◽  
N. Pirzkal ◽  
...  

Aims. We aim to evaluate the near-infrared colors of brown dwarfs as observed with four major infrared imaging space observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Euclid mission, and the WFIRST telescope. Methods. We used the SPLAT SPEX/ISPEX spectroscopic library to map out the colors of the M-, L-, and T-type dwarfs. We have identified which color–color combination is optimal for identifying broad type and which single color is optimal to then identify the subtype (e.g., T0-9). We evaluated each observatory separately as well as the narrow-field (HST and JWST) and wide-field (Euclid and WFIRST) combinations. Results. The Euclid filters perform equally well as HST wide filters in discriminating between broad types of brown dwarfs. WFIRST performs similarly well, despite a wider selection of filters. However, subtyping with any combination of Euclid and WFIRST observations remains uncertain due to the lack of medium, or narrow-band filters. We argue that a medium band added to the WFIRST filter selection would greatly improve its ability to preselect brown dwarfs its imaging surveys. Conclusions. The HST filters used in high-redshift searches are close to optimal to identify broad stellar type. However, the addition of F127M to the commonly used broad filter sets would allow for unambiguous subtyping. An improvement over HST is one of two broad and medium filter combinations on JWST: pairing F140M with either F150W or F162M discriminates very well between subtypes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A48 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Radcliffe ◽  
M. A. Garrett ◽  
T. W. B. Muxlow ◽  
R. J. Beswick ◽  
P. D. Barthel ◽  
...  

Context. The occurrence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is critical to our understanding of galaxy evolution and formation. Radio observations provide a crucial, dust-independent tool to study the role of AGN. However, conventional radio surveys of deep fields ordinarily have arc-second scale resolutions often insufficient to reliably separate radio emission in distant galaxies originating from star-formation and AGN-related activity. Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) can offer a solution by identifying only the most compact radio emitting regions in galaxies at cosmological distances where the high brightness temperatures (in excess of 105 K) can only be reliably attributed to AGN activity. Aims. We present the first in a series of papers exploring the faint compact radio population using a new wide-field VLBI survey of the GOODS-N field. This will expand upon previous surveys, permitting the characterisation of the faint, compact radio source population in the GOODS-N field. The unparalleled sensitivity of the European VLBI Network (EVN) will probe a luminosity range rarely seen in deep wide-field VLBI observations, thus providing insights into the role of AGN to radio luminosities of the order 1022 WHz−1 across cosmic time. Methods. The newest VLBI techniques are used to completely cover an entire 7′̣5 radius area to milliarcsecond resolutions, while bright radio sources (S > 0.1 mJy) are targeted up to 25′ from the pointing centre. Multi-source self-calibration, and a primary beam model for the EVN array are used to correct for residual phase errors and primary beam attenuation respectively. Results. This paper presents the largest catalogue of VLBI detected sources in GOODS-N comprising of 31 compact radio sources across a redshift range of 0.11–3.44, almost three times more than previous VLBI surveys in this field. We provide a machine-readable catalogue and introduce the radio properties of the detected sources using complementary data from the e-MERLIN Galaxy Evolution survey (eMERGE).


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 197-198
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bunker

AbstractI discuss stellar populations in galaxies at high redshift (z > 6), in particular the blue rest-frame UV colours which have been detected in recent years through near-IR imaging with HST. These spectral slopes of β < −2 are much more blue than star-forming galaxies at lower redshift, and may suggest less dust obscuration, lower metallicity or perhaps a different initial mass function. I describe current work on the luminosity function of high redshift star- forming galaxies, the evolution of the fraction of strong Lyman-α emitters in this population, and the contribution of the ionizing photon budget from such galaxies towards the reionization of the Universe. I also describe constraints placed by Spitzer/IRAC on stellar populations in galaxies within the first billion years, and look towards future developments in spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope, including the JWST/NIRSpec GTO programme on galaxy evolution at high redshift.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 69-69
Author(s):  
Anne Hutter

AbstractReionization represents an important epoch in the history in the Universe, when the first stars and galaxies gradually ionize the neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Understanding the nature of the ionizing sources, the associated ionization of the IGM, and its impact on subsequent structure formation and galaxy evolution by means of radiative feedback effects, represent key outstanding questions in current astrophysics. High-redshift galaxy observations and simulations have significantly extended our knowledge on the nature of high-redshift galaxies. However, essential properties such as the escape fraction of ionizing photons from galaxies into the IGM and their dependency on galactic properties remain essentially unknown, but determine significantly the distribution and time evolution of the ionized regions during reionization. Analyzing this ionization topology by means of the neutral hydrogen sensitive 21cm signal with radio interferometers such as SKA offers a complementary and unique opportunity to determine the nature of these first galaxies. I will show results from a self-consistent semi-numerical model of galaxy evolution and reionization, and discuss the potential of inferring galactic properties with the 21cm signal as well as the impact of reionization on the high-redshift galaxy population and its evolution.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (T26B) ◽  
pp. 183-183
Author(s):  
Elaine M. Sadler ◽  
Françoise Combes ◽  
Sadanori Okamura ◽  
James J. Binney ◽  
Anthony P. Fairall ◽  
...  

The members of Commission 28 on Galaxies were very busy during this General Assembly, with the Commission involved in two Symposia (IAU Symposium No. 235 Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time, IAU Symposium No. 238 Black Holes: from Stars to Galaxies), and two Joint Discussions (JD07 The Universe at z > 6, JD15 New Cosmology Results from the Spitzer Space Telescope). Therefore, the Business Meeting was combined with the Division VIII Business Meeting, which included a short information session on the new Commission 28 Organizing Committee. The triennial report of the Commission for 2003-2005 was also distributed, and is available on the Commission 28 web site.


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Bailey

AbstractThe very low background observed from Antarctica in a window from about 2·25 to 2·45 μm can be exploited as a way of making deep near-IR surveys over wide areas of sky. Imaging surveys using the entire window can cover large areas of sky to limits of around K = 20, and can be used to study galaxy evolution and to search for high-redshift quasars, dust-obscured quasars and brown dwarfs. It is also possible to make spectroscopic surveys in this window. The window includes molecular hydrogen emission and CO absorption in galactic sources, and can also be used to search for emission lines such as Hα in high-redshift star-forming galaxies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 368-375
Author(s):  
Karl Glazebrook

AbstractFuture prospects in observational galaxy evolution are reviewed from a personal perspective. New insights will especially come from high-redshift integral field kinematic data and similar low-redshift observations in very large and definitive surveys. We will start to systematically probe the mass structures of galaxies and their haloes via lensing from new imaging surveys and upcoming near-IR spectroscopic surveys will finally obtain large numbers of rest frame optical spectra at high-redshift routinely. ALMA will be an important new ingredient, spatially resolving the molecular gas fuelling the high star-formation rates seen in the early Universe.


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