CEERS Key Paper VII: JWST/MIRI Reveals a Faint Population of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Unseen by Spitzer

• Published in: arXiv.org 2023-08
• Main Authors: Kirkpatrick, Allison, Yang, Guang, Aurelien Le Bail, Troiani, Greg, Bell, Eric F, Cleri, Nikko J, Elbaz, David, Finkelstein, Steven L, Hathi, Nimish P, Hirschmann, Michaela, Holwerda, Benne W, Kocevski, Dale D, Lucas, Ray A, McKinney, Jed, Papovich, Casey, Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G, de la Vega, Alexander, Bagley, Micaela B, Daddi, Emanuele, Dickinson, Mark, Ferguson, Henry C, Fontana, Adriano, Grazian, Andrea, Grogin, Norman A, Pablo Arrabal Haro, Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S, Kewley, Lisa J, Koekemoer, Anton M, Lotz, Jennifer M, Pentericci, Laura, Pirzkal, Nor, Ravindranath, Swara, Somerville, Rachel S, Trump, Jonathan R, Wilkins, Stephen M, Yung, L Y Aaron
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active galactic nuclei; Color; Cosmic dust; Electromagnetic wave filters; Emission; Galaxies; Infrared instruments; James Webb Space Telescope; Luminosity; Near infrared radiation; Space telescopes; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation
• ISSN: 2331-8422

The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) program observed the Extended Groth Strip with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2022. In this paper, we discuss the four MIRI pointings that observed with longer wavelength filters, including F770W, F1000W, F1280W, F1500W, F1800W, and F2100W. We compare the MIRI galaxies with the Spitzer/MIPS 24\(\mu\)m population in the EGS field. We find that MIRI can observe an order of magnitude deeper than MIPS in significantly shorter integration times, attributable to JWST's much larger aperture and MIRI's improved sensitivity. MIRI is exceptionally good at finding faint (\(L_{\rm IR}