Stephanie La Massa

Space Telescope Science Institute

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Jeff A. Valenti

Space Telescope Science Institute

M. Stiavelli

Space Telescope Science Institute

Jeff Stys

Space Telescope Science Institute

Anton M. Koekemoer

Space Telescope Science Institute

Larry Bradley

Space Telescope Science Institute

Nina Bonaventura

University of Arizona

J. Dupuis

Canadian Space Agency

Timothy Rhue

Space Telescope Science Institute

Marc Maschmann

Airbus (Germany)

Charles W. Bowers

Goddard Space Flight Center

Cooperative Institutions

Space Telescope Science Institute

417

Goddard Space Flight Center

152

Johns Hopkins University

Max Planck Society

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Michigan Science Center

University of Arizona

California Institute of Technology

Northrop Grumman (United States)

Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian

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The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (2023)

Jane R. Rigby Marshall D. Perrin Michael W. McElwain Randy A. Kimble S. D. Friedman

Abstract This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.

10.1088/1538-3873/acb293

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Citations (229)

Hard X-ray emission of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 as observed by NuSTAR

Astronomy and Astrophysics (2015)

Simonetta Puccetti A. Comastri F. E. Bauer W. N. Brandt F. Fiore

We present a broad-band (~0.3-70 keV) spectral and temporal analysis of NuSTAR observations of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240, combined with archival Chandra, XMM-Newton and BeppoSAX data. NGC 6240 is a galaxy in a relatively early merger state with two distinct nuclei separated by ~1."5. Previous Chandra observations have resolved the two nuclei, showing that they are both active and obscured by Compton-thick material. Although they cannot be resolved by NuSTAR, thanks to the unprecedented quality of the NuSTAR data at energies >10 keV, we clearly detect, for the first time, both the primary and the reflection continuum components. The NuSTAR hard X-ray spectrum is dominated by the primary continuum piercing through an absorbing column density which is mildly optically thick to Compton scattering (tau ~ 1.2, N_H ~ 1.5 x 10^(24) cm^-2). We detect moderate hard X-ray (> 10 keV) flux variability up to 20% on short (15-20 ksec) timescales. The amplitude of the variability is maximum at ~30 keV and is likely to originate from the primary continuum of the southern nucleus. Nevertheless, the mean hard X-ray flux on longer timescales (years) is relatively constant. Moreover, the two nuclei remain Compton-thick, although we find evidence of variability of the material along the line of sight with column densities N_H <~ 2 x 10^(23) cm-2 over long (~3-15 years) timescales. The observed X-ray emission in the NuSTAR energy range is fully consistent with the sum of the best-fit models of the spatially resolved Chandra spectra of the two nuclei.

10.1051/0004-6361/201527189

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Citations (44)

Warm Spitzer Imaging of NuSTAR Fields

Spitzer Proposal (2013)

Daniel Stern D. M. Alexander G. B. Lansbury James Aird Roberto J. Assef

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Citations (0)

3D-DASH: A Wide Field WFC3/IR Survey of COSMOS

HST Proposal (2020)

Ivelina Momcheva Rachel Bezanson Gabriel Brammer N. M. Förster Schreiber Marijn Franx

Cosmos (plant)

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Uncovering Intermediate Mass Black Holes with JWST: Pushing the Frontier

JWST Proposal. Cycle 1 (2021)

S. Satyapal Nicholas Abel Laura Blecha Torsten Boeker Thomas Bohn

Frontier

Critical mass (sociodynamics)

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Distinguishing Tidal Disruption Events from Impostors

Space Science Reviews (2021)

Ann I. Zabludoff I. Arcavi Stephanie La Massa Hagai B. Perets Benny Trakhtenbrot

10.1007/s11214-021-00829-4

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Citations (3)

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

arXiv (Cornell University) (2022)

Jane R. Rigby Marshall D. Perrin Michael W. McElwain Randy A. Kimble Scott L. Friedman

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.

10.48550/arxiv.2207.05632

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Citations (15)

Accretion history of AGN: Estimating the host galaxy properties in X-ray luminous AGN from z = 0–3

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022)

Brandon Coleman Allison Kirkpatrick Kevin C. Cooke Eilat Glikman Stephanie La Massa

We aim to determine the intrinsic far-Infrared (far-IR) emission of X-ray-luminous quasars over cosmic time. Using a 16 deg^2 region of the Stripe 82 field surveyed by XMM-Newton and Herschel Space Observatory, we identify 2905 X-ray luminous (LX > 10^42 erg/s) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the range z ~ 0-3. The IR is necessary to constrain host galaxy properties such as star formation rate (SFR) and gas mass. However, only 10% of our AGN are detected both in the X-ray and IR. Because 90% of the sample is undetected in the far-IR by Herschel, we explore the mean IR emission of these undetected sources by stacking their Herschel/SPIRE images in bins of X-ray luminosity and redshift. We create stacked spectral energy distributions from the optical to the far-IR, and estimate the median star formation rate, dust mass, stellar mass, and infrared luminosity using a fitting routine. We find that the stacked sources on average have similar SFR/L_bol ratios as IR detected sources. The majority of our sources fall on or above the main sequence line suggesting that X-ray selection alone does not predict the location of a galaxy on the main sequence. We also find that the gas depletion timescales of our AGN are similar to those of dusty star forming galaxies. This suggests that X-ray selected AGN host high star formation and that there are no signs of declining star formation.

Stellar mass

Spitzer Space Telescope

10.1093/mnras/stac1679

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Citations (6)

Characterization of JWST science performance from commissioning

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) (2022)

Jane R. Rigby Marshall D. Perrin Michael W. McElwain Randy A. Kimble Scott L. Friedman

Characterization

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Citations (4)