Brian Welch (NASA / University of Maryland)
Date: Thu. February 8th, 2024, 4:00 pm-5:00 pmLocation: Rockefeller 301
Dissecting Galaxies in the Distant Universe with JWST and Gravitational Lensing
The launch of JWST in December 2021 opened a powerful new eye onto the distant universe. The telescope’s high spatial resolution, large collecting area, and infrared wavelength coverage have enabled detailed studies of distant galaxies that were untenable with other instruments. Combining this powerful tool with strong gravitational lensing has been particularly exciting. Gravitational lensing magnifies distant galaxies, enabling detection of intrinsically smaller, fainter features than is possible in blank fields. In this talk, I will review some recent lensed galaxy results from JWST, and discuss how these new observations are shaping our understanding of the physics that govern galaxy evolution on small scales. I will also discuss several upcoming observing programs that will help paint a more detailed picture of the evolution of substructure in galaxies over cosmic time.