Finding Obscured Galaxies/Black Holes/Brown Dwarfs from the James Webb Space Telescope PRIMER/SMILES fields

Project Description

A longstanding open question in extragalactic astronomy is how many dusty galaxies and accreting black holes remain undetected by even the most advanced observational surveys. A large population of faint, dust-obscured sources lies beyond the sensitivity limits of previous space-based infrared telescopes such as Spitzer (85 cm) and AKARI (65 cm). The advent of the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) marks a transformative leap in infrared astronomy. With a sensitivity more than two orders of magnitude greater than that of Spitzer and AKARI, JWST enables the detection of previously inaccessible faint infrared sources.

Dusty galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) exhibit distinct signatures in the mid-infrared. AGN are characterized by strong mid-infrared emission from warm dust heated to high temperatures, whereas dusty star-forming galaxies are dominated by prominent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features. The JWST PRIMER/SMILES fields offer a mid-infrared survey area approximately 17 times larger than that of the Early Release Observations, providing an unprecedented combination of depth and areal coverage. Leveraging JWST’s exceptional mid-infrared sensitivity, we aim to discover dusty galaxies, accreting black holes, and brown dwarfs that were previously undetectable with any existing facility.