galaxies: structure; Gravitational lensing: strong; Astronomy and Astrophysics; Space and Planetary Science
Abstract :
[en] The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) presents the first systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the COSMOS-Web field using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using high-resolution NIRCam imaging, we visually inspected over 42 660 galaxies and identified over 400 lensing candidates. Here, we report the 17 most obvious and spectacular strong lensing systems, distinguished by large Einstein rings, arcs, and distinct lens and source colours. These diverse lenses, identified only through visual inspection of lens-light-subtracted images, represent the extremes of lens parameter space. Exceptionally high signal-to-noise, multiwavelength imaging enables unprecedented lensing analysis, including 'HST-dark' source galaxies that are also invisible in deeper but bluer JWST wavebands: enabling clean deblending between the lens and the source. Some sources exhibit dramatic morphological changes across wavelengths, and patterns of dust absorption within lenses. No other current facility, including the Hubble Space Telescope, can discover or image such lenses with comparable detail. We estimate that JWST uncovers a new spectacular lens approximately every 10 to 12 NIRCam pointings, suggesting that over 40 similar lenses remain undiscovered within its first three years of observations. All COWLS data are publicly available on GitHub.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Mahler, Guillaume ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Multi-wavelength Extragalactic and Galactic Astrophysics (MEGA) ; Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; STAR Institute, Quartier Agora, Liège, Belgium
Nightingale, James W. ; School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Herschel Building, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
Hogg, Natalie B. ; Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Gozaliasl, Ghassem ; Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland ; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
McCleary, Jacqueline ; Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
He, Qiuhan ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Sciences spatiales ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; STAR Institute, Quartier Agora, Liège, Belgium
Berman, Edward ; Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
Franco, Maximilien ; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
Liu, Daizhong ; Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
Massey, Richard J. ; Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Mercier, Wilfried ; Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Marseille, France
Scognamiglio, Diana ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Shuntov, Marko ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark ; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Von Wietersheim-Kramsta, Maximilian ; Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Paquereau, Louise ; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Ilbert, Olivier ; Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Marseille, France
Allen, Natalie ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark
Toft, Sune ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark
Akins, Hollis B ; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
Casey, Caitlin M. ; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark ; Department of Phyiscs, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S. ; Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, United States
Koekemoer, Anton M. ; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, United States
McCracken, Henry Joy ; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Rhodes, Jason D. ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Robertson, Brant E. ; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, United States
Zavala, Jorge A. ; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Drakos, Nicole E. ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hilo, United States
Faisst, Andreas L. ; Caltech/IPAC, Pasadena, United States
Magdis, Georgios E. ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark ; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark ; DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Jin, Shuowen ; Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), København, Denmark ; DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
STFC - Science and Technology Facilities Council UKSA - UK Space Agency UKRI - United Kingdom Resarch and Innovation ERC - European Research Council CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales ANR - Agence Nationale de la Recherche Villum Fonden Jet Propulsion Laboratory CIT - California Institute of Technology NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Durham University ESA - European Space Agency STSCI - Space Telescope Science Institute AURA - Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Funding text :
We thank Kaija Virolainen for her contribution to the the image rendering. GM, RJM, and MvW-K were supported in Durham by STFC via grant ST/X001075/1, and the UK Space Agency via grant ST/X001997/1. JWN was supported by an STFC/UKRI Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, project reference ST/X003086/1. QH acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) through Advanced Investigator grant DMIDAS (GA 786910). The French contingent of the COSMOS team is partly supported by the Centre National d\u2019\u00C9tudes Spatiales (CNES). OI acknowledges the funding of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for the project iMAGE (grant ANR-22-CE31-0007). SJ acknowledges the Villum Fonden research grants 37440 and 13160. DS acknowledges the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). This work was made possible thanks to the CANDIDE cluster at the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique de Paris, which was funded through grants from the PNCG, CNES, DIM-ACAV, and the Cosmic Dawn Center; CANDIDE is maintained by S. Rouberol. This work used the DiRAC@Durham facility managed by the Institute for Computational Cosmology on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC facility ( www.dirac.ac.uk ). The equipment was funded by BEIS capital funding via STFC capital grants ST/K00042X/1, ST/P002293/1, ST/R002371/1 and ST/S002502/1, Durham University and STFC operations grant ST/R000832/1. DiRAC is part of the UK National e-Infrastructure.
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