I will present the recent discovery of a significant number of the most distant galaxies and AGN in the universe (6.5 < z < 18) using the JWST Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) GTO survey, as well as public JWST data. This is currently one of the largest JWST investigations of its kind to date, with over 100 square arcmins spanning six fields. I will present the details of our z>6.5 sample of more than 1000 galaxies, including many new candidates between 14<z<20, increasing by a significant amount the number of galaxies at this epoch. My talk will describe how our reliable sample at the highest redshifts is identified, present their structure, star formation and stellar population properties, as well as their merger rates and new results on AGN in early galaxies. I will conclude with the implications of our results for the theoretical ideas behind galaxy formation as well as what our results imply about the reionization of the universe.
Speaker: Chris Conselice, Professor, University of Manchaster, United Kingdom
Host: Fred Rasio