Grants and Contributions

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project aims to reveal the properties and ages of the oldest white dwarfs in our Galaxy; the precise ages of these “ultracool” white dwarfs remain a mystery due to uncertainties in our current models of their atmospheres. Direct observation of these white dwarfs using infrared spectroscopy will accurately determine the properties and ages of ultracool white dwarfs. This will also improve the characterization of planetary material detected in these ancient stars, giving unprecedented insights into the composition of planetary systems that existed up to 10 billion years ago.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project aims to use two imaging cameras on JWST to uncover a large population of star clusters in their early infancy in a nearby galaxy¿ M64 also known as the “Evil Eye Galaxy”. The rare proximity to this galaxy means JWST can discern individual star clusters and surrounding regions containing ionized gas, as well as detect the filamentary gas structures that underlie and possibly fuel the cluster-forming sites. This program will provide the last missing piece for a synthesized study of star clusters, gas filaments, and HII regions in a unique, close-by galaxy.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project will extract emission line maps from JWST/NIRISS data to produce a publicly available catalog which will then be used to analyze the spatial distribution of star formation within galaxies at Cosmic Noon. These emission line maps detail where emission line fluxes originate from within galaxies and contain information about the chemical abundances, distribution of dust, ages of the stellar populations, and the rate of star formation. This project is part of the OutThere survey, and alongside other data from the survey will further our understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project will image a nearby galaxy with JWST to make the best available maps of the gas within it. Gas in galaxies is what causes them to grow and evolve over time, this gas feeds the birth of new stars and when stars create supernovae the gas gets stirred up by the shock waves from those explosions. By comparing this data to a set of simulated galaxies, it can be determined what the exact balance of energies in this galaxy is and how that balance gets tipped in the different parts of this galaxy.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

It is known that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of galaxies, these black holes can create winds and outflows called jets in their environments. This project will study the active galaxy 3C305 and determine if star formation in the galaxy is associated with the jet from the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. If so, the details of how the jet interacts with gas and triggers star formation will be studied.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

The amount of cooler gas in the center of galaxy clusters is about 10 percent of the amount expected from simple cooling. The central radio source associated with the bright central galaxy has been identified as the origin of the heating. This project uses JWST observations combined with previous multi-observatory, multiwavelength observations to investigate how the central radio source is able to re-heat the gas called the intracluster medium, or ICM.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project will collect data with NIRISS and NIRSpec for 15 of the most promising water-world candidates. It will provide vital constraints on the existence of water worlds and will allow characterization of the chemical diversity of their atmospheres. The existence of water worlds has important implications for theories of planet formation, and they represent a new regime of atmospheric chemistry that has until now remained uncharted.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project will observe a uniquely hot and dense sub-Neptune exoplanet, TOI-842b, in order to determine its structure and composition. The study will determine if the exoplanet is an exposed Neptune mantle, like Neptune that lacks the large H2 envelope, as well as determine the composition and thermal structure of its atmosphere. These results will obtain one of the deepest understandings of a sub-Neptune planet yet, as well as expand the understanding of sub-Neptune formation.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

It has long been postulated that massive young stars in small dwarf galaxies are the source of photons that drive reionization. This project will employ a new method of detecting dwarf galaxies using medium bands. Once these galaxies are found they will be fully mapped in 2D. This will uncover what is causing the intense star-formation within them, and how the energetic photons that reionize the Universe escape from these galaxies.

Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 2 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on July 6, 2023, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data.

This project will study three of the oldest and faintest massive galaxies in our universe, these galaxies are said to have formed “impossibly early,” within a billion years of the Big Bang. This program will investigate how these galaxies assembled large masses of stars in such a short period of time using JWST spectroscopy. These results will address longstanding questions about the formation of the earliest structures in the universe.