The COSMOS-Web has just finalized their release of their full field: larger and deeper than any other JWST program. Here’s what’s inside.
Back in 2021, before the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched, an incredible suite of decisions were made: about which observing projects and programs would be granted observing time, and how much time they would be granted. Some of the decisions granted are known as GTO, or Guaranteed Time Observations, which went to members of the teams that put painstaking efforts into developing the software and hardware JWST would require in order to function and conduct science operations properly. But the rest of the decisions were part of the GO, or General Observers, program, which provide the worldwide astronomical community the opportunity to apply for JWST observing time.
Of all the GO programs that were selected before JWST ever launched, the COSMOS-Web program, led by Dr. Jeyhan Kartaltepe and Dr. Caitlin Casey, was the largest and most comprehensive. All told, the COSMOS-Web team:
- was composed of 50 researchers,
- was granted 208.6 hours (almost 9 days) of JWST observing time,
- was designed to map 0.54 square…
