Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits at the end of the last decade has allowed astronomers to view the tip of the cosmic iceberg at a time only 500 Myr after the Big Bang. While a few candidate galaxies were found, significant questions about the onset and evolution of the earliest galaxies persisted. The launch of JWST has opened up this epoch to direct and detailed observation by providing a significant leap in our ability to study the entire epoch of reionization due to its redder sensitivity and spectroscopic capabilities. The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) and Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Probe (NGDEEP) programs have enabled one of our first looks into this epoch, finding that galaxies at these early times are more abundant than predicted by most simulations. This hints at not only an early onset of galaxy formation, but that stars are forming differently at these early times. Simultaneously, JWST imaging and spectroscopy has significantly improved our ability to identify early growing supermassive black holes, showing that they appear (relatively) frequently at high-redshift. These observations pushing models of early black hole growth, implying that massive seeds and/or super-Eddington accretion are needed at early times. I will discuss a variety of results in these areas, including exciting potential changes in the dominant physical processes, which we aim to probe with Cycle 3 (and beyond) spectroscopic programs.

Speaker: Steven Finkelstein (The University of Texas at Austin)

The 2024 Fall Colloquium talks are held on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM. This colloquium is hosted by STScI and will be held as an in-person and virtual event.

You may join in person at STScI’s John N. Bahcall Auditorium or virtually on STScI's Live Science Events Facebook page.

Please direct questions or comments to contact above. The 2024 Fall Colloquium Committee members are: Nestor Espinoza (STScI), Joel Green (STScI), Nick Indriolo (STScI), Elena Manjavacas (STScI), Namrata Roy (JHU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Ethan Vishniac (JHU).