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Title: JWST's PEARLS: Transients in the MACS J0416.1−2403 Field
Abstract With its unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened a new window for time-domain discoveries in the infrared. Here we report observations in the only field that has received four epochs (spanning 126 days) of JWST NIRCam observations in Cycle 1. This field is toward MACS J0416.1−2403, which is a rich galaxy cluster at redshiftz= 0.4 and is one of the Hubble Frontier Fields. We have discovered 14 transients from these data. Twelve of these transients happened in three galaxies (withz= 0.94, 1.01, and 2.091) crossing a lensing caustic of the cluster, and these transients are highly magnified by gravitational lensing. These 12 transients are likely of a similar nature to those previously reported based on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data in this field, i.e., individual stars in the highly magnified arcs. However, these 12 could not have been found by HST because they were too red and too faint. The other two transients are associated with background galaxies (z= 2.205 and 0.7093) that are only moderately magnified, and they are likely supernovae. They indicate a demagnified supernova surface density, when monitored at a time cadence of a few months to a ∼3–4μm survey limit of AB ∼28.5 mag, of ∼0.5 arcmin−2integrated toz≈ 2. This survey depth is beyond the capability of HST but can be easily reached by JWST.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2012955 1817099
PAR ID:
10509639
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Publisher / Repository:
Institute of Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume:
269
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0067-0049
Page Range / eLocation ID:
43
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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