MINERVA: A NIRCam Medium Band and MIRI Imaging Survey to Unlock the Hidden Gems of the Distant Universe
read the original abstract
We present an overview of the MINERVA survey, a 259.8 hour (prime) and 127 hour (parallel) Cycle 4 treasury program on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). MINERVA is obtaining 8 filter NIRCam medium band imaging (F140M, F162M, F182M, F210M, F250M, F300M, F360M, F460M) and 2 filter MIRI imaging (F1280W, F1500W) in four of the five CANDELS Extragalactic fields: UDS, COSMOS, AEGIS and GOODS-N. These fields were previously observed in Cycle 1 with 7 - 9 NIRCam filters by the PRIMER, CEERS and JADES programs. MINERVA reaches a 5$\sigma$ depth of 28.1 mag in F300M and covers $\sim$ 542 arcmin$^2$, increasing the area of existing JWST medium-band coverage in at least 8 bands by $\sim$ 7$\times$. The MIRI imaging reaches a 5$\sigma$ depth of 23.9 mag in F1280W and covers $\sim$ 275 arcmin$^2$ in at least 2 MIRI filters. When combined with existing imaging, these data will provide a photometric catalog with 20-26 JWST filters (depending on field) and 26-35 filters total, including HST. This paper presents a detailed breakdown of the filter coverage, exposure times, and field layout relative to previous observations, as well as an overview of the primary science goals of the project. These include uncovering the physics of enigmatic sources hiding in current broadband catalogs, improving systematics on stellar mass functions and number densities by factors of $\gtrsim$ 3, and resolved mapping of stellar mass and star formation at 1 $< z <$ 6. When complete, MINERVA will become an integral part of the treasury deep field imaging datasets, significantly improving population studies with well-understood completeness, robust photometric redshifts, stellar masses, and sizes, and facilitating spectroscopic follow up for decades to come.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet.
Forward citations
Cited by 8 Pith papers
-
Compact Core, Extended Reach: A Bipolar kpc-Scale Elongation in a Little Red Dot at $z \approx 5.5$
LRD-204851 at z=5.482 shows a thin bipolar elongation several kpc long traced by UV and optical lines, with double-peaked Lyα and tentative N V supporting a biconical cavity from the central engine.
-
Black Hole Stars Across the Universe: Identifying Central Engine Dominated Little Red Dots at $z\sim1.5-9.5$
New template-fitting selection yields 241 BH*-dominated LRD candidates at z~1.7-9.3 with number density peaking at z~5-6, demonstrating persistence to lower redshifts.
-
Something Bright at the Edge of Everything: A Uniquely JWST-Dark Radio Source in COSMOS
A uniquely JWST-dark radio source detected from 144 MHz to 3 GHz but undetected in all available optical, infrared, X-ray, and submillimeter imaging, potentially representing an extremely dust-obscured radio-loud gala...
-
Massive Galaxies Form Early and Gray: Stellar Assembly and Dust Attenuation at $\mathbf{z>3.5}$ from CAPERS
Massive galaxies at z>3.5 assembled stars earlier than theoretical models predict and exhibit gray dust attenuation, especially at the highest masses.
-
No hidden monsters: Probing recently-quenched galaxies for obscured AGN with JWST-PRIMER MIRI and NIRCam
JWST MIRI observations of post-starburst galaxies find no mid-IR excess in high-mass systems, constraining hidden AGN to Eddington ratios below 1 percent, with low-mass systems showing residual star formation instead.
-
Unbreaking the Universe: MINERVA Measurements of Color Gradients in Massive Quiescent Galaxies Can Help Ease Too-Early Star Formation Tensions
Resolved photometry of four high-redshift quiescent galaxies reveals negative color gradients that lower estimated stellar masses by 0.1 dex relative to slit measurements, reducing model tensions under an age-driven i...
-
Calibrating Photometric Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rates for JWST
Rest-frame 6-8um MIRI luminosity provides broken power-law SFR calibrations with 0.2-0.3 dex scatter and UV+IR composites at 0.15 dex, supporting robust use above log M* ~9 up to z~3.
-
Impact of stochastic star-formation histories and dust on selecting quiescent galaxies with JWST photometry
SED fitting with flexible delayed, NonParametric, and extended Regulator SFH models on CEERS/MIRI galaxies shows MIRI boosts QGC counts by up to 45% and finds 13% of QGCs have AV > 0.5 regardless of SFH.
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.