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Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy with JWST's NIRISS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

William V. Dixon
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States email: [email protected], [email protected]
Swara Ravindranath
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States email: [email protected], [email protected]
Chris J. Willott
Affiliation:
Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, Victoria, BC, Canada email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will offer wide-field slitless spectroscopy (WFSS) with a resolving power R = 150 at wavelengths from 0.8 to 2.25 microns. In this band, NIRISS will be sensitive to Lyman α emission lines and continuum breaks in the spectra of galaxies with redshifts 6 < z < 17, allowing it to probe the first stars and ionizing sources in the early universe. NIRISS observations of the high-redshift universe will provide a wealth of information on foreground objects, creating a unique library of optical emission-line spectra from the faintest galaxies at lower redshifts. To explore its ability to identify and characterize galaxies at all redshifts, we have modeled a NIRISS observation of a massive strong-lensing galaxy cluster and analyzed the synthetic images using standard software tools. Our simulations demonstrate that WFSS with NIRISS will provide a powerful tool for the exploration of galaxies near and far.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

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