Papers with a Northern Light member as first or second author, and papers from the VENUS and MINERVA JWST surveys led by the initiative.
JWST imaging from the VENUS survey and a NIRSpec prism spectrum identify SN Helios as a multiply imaged Type II supernova at z = 3.34, with another image predicted within about 2–6 years for a time-delay measurement of H₀.
More than two decades of HST, Spitzer, and JWST imaging reveal a long-lived nuclear transient in the red quasar GNz7q at z = 7.19 that points to the tidal disruption of a star of a few solar masses.
JWST and NOEMA link a dense, metal-enriched absorber at z = 7.03 to ND1, a heavily dust-obscured starburst about 16 kpc from the quasar sightline whose 64 M⊙ yr⁻¹ outflow appears to carry metals into its halo.
JWST spectra of three interacting, lensed low-mass galaxies at z = 5.196, expected to grow into a Milky Way-mass galaxy, suggest intense star-forming bursts boost their stellar mass growth to 2.6 ± 0.5 times that of merging alone.
VENUS NIRCam imaging of the lensed post-starburst galaxy VENUS-CLJ0152-QG1 at z ≈ 5.2 reaches about 70 pc resolution and reveals a size twice that expected and a low central density, pointing to quenching without compaction.
Resolved JWST and HST photometry of about 3000 galaxies at 1 < z < 9 shows that integrated photometry underestimates stellar masses, by a median of about 0.36 dex in galaxies with high specific star formation rates, consistent with outshining.
A bilinear relation between absolute magnitude and dynamical mass for globular clusters and ultra-compact dwarfs gives per-object distance uncertainties of about 30–35% and places the debated dwarf galaxy NGC1052-DF2 at 19.1 ± 4.3 Mpc.
Scoring ΛCDM and w₀wₐCDM by how well each predicts held-out data traces the modest preference for evolving dark energy to a single DESI BAO measurement at z = 0.706, while the supernova datasets show no preference.
LUVCam2, an 80 mm dual ultraviolet-optical telescope designed to observe UV flares from low-mass stars, is planned to fly on the CubeSat BRNOsat in late 2027 with a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor for higher UV quantum efficiency.
LUVCam1, a 0.4U payload on the 2U cubesat GRBBeta launched in July 2024, tests the GSENSE4040 CMOS sensor in orbit ahead of the QUVIK ultraviolet mission and remains operational two years later.
An automated test bench measures focal ratio degradation and throughput of optical fibers under varied input angle, wavelength, bending, twist, and load, built for future survey facilities such as Spec-S5 and WST with more than 25,000 fibers.
Ultra-deep JWST/NIRSpec spectra of nine massive quiescent galaxies at z ≈ 0.7 reveal bottom-heavy stellar initial mass functions, an excess of low-mass stars that raises their inferred stellar masses.
The first-release QUEST Dwarfs sample of 14 galaxies indicates that chemically enriched cool gas is concentrated in the inner circumgalactic medium, where it holds ≈3% and ≈16% of the metals produced by lower- and higher-mass dwarfs.
Hydrodynamical simulations show that primordial black hole seeds follow environment-dependent pathways, forming faint, metal-poor systems in underdense regions and growing rapidly in overdense ones, with compact sources resembling Little Red Dots appearing as one evolutionary phase.
Hα imaging with the partially completed MOTHRA telescope finds twenty-two compact bow shocks around gas clumps in the outer Helix Nebula, which the team interprets as AGB-shell fragments stripped by the interstellar medium and losing coherence within about 10,000 years.
EncoTESS, a compact time-series foundation model trained on TESS 2-minute light curves, turns raw stellar variability into encodings that track age better than rotation period or variability amplitude for young K and M stars.
Cosmological radiation-hydrodynamic simulations identify giant molecular clouds whose light-element abundance spreads and nitrogen-oxygen anticorrelations at nearly constant iron abundance reproduce key globular cluster signatures, suggesting such patterns can be inherited at birth without requiring extended in-cluster star formation.
LUVCam packages a commercial off-the-shelf CMOS sensor with custom electronics into a low-cost, ITAR-free UV/optical camera that has been on orbit since July 2024, has reached Technology Readiness Level 7, and will supply both QUVIK focal plane cameras.
The first characterization of the host of the multiply imaged Type IIP supernova SN Eos at z = 5.13, where a total magnification of about 53 lets the team resolve the supernova's local environment inside an ultra-faint early galaxy.
Twenty-one member stars show that Boötes III is an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy being tidally disrupted on a highly eccentric polar orbit, caught about 0.14 Gyr after its latest pericentric passage.
Alongside structural parameters for about 41,000 galaxies in up to 29 JWST+HST filters, GALFIT fits of about 4,100 star-forming galaxies at 0.6 < z ≤ 4 show a wavelength-dependent size-mass slope with a crossover at log(M*/M☉) ≈ 9.5.
Applied to Galactic thin-disk stars, a closed-form model of metallicity-gradient residuals in a cold, phase-mixed disk gives a root-mean-square radial migration of ≈ 2.79 ± 0.07 kpc for 6-Gyr-old stars, consistent with more complex numerical frameworks.
LEGA-C, MOSDEF and CANUCS spectra of about 300 star-forming galaxies at 0.6 < z < 2.6 show that clumpy galaxies generally lie below the mass-metallicity relation, suggesting their clumpiness is linked to metal-poor gas accretion.
Medium-band NIRCam imaging from CANUCS, Technicolor and JUMPS identifies 26 red galaxies with strong emission lines at 4.9 ≲ z ≲ 8.9, including compact sources that fail classic selection criteria but are likely Little Red Dots.
Combining THESAN-ZOOM predictions of ionizing photon escape rates for more than 35,000 simulated galaxies with observed UV luminosity functions suggests the bulk of reionization occurred rapidly after z ≈ 8, driven by galaxies brighter than absolute UV magnitude −17.
Simulated GD-1 and C-19 streams evolved for 13 Gyr among cold dark matter subhalos best match the DESI velocity widths on average, with large scatter, while 5.5 keV warm dark matter subhalos typically fail to heat them enough.
Spatially resolved SED fitting of 872 Milky Way analog progenitors up to z = 5 in CANUCS finds non-merger age and sSFR gradients consistent with inside-out assembly, which major mergers appear to disrupt only momentarily.
Among 111 galaxies in three SpARCS clusters and 458 in the 3D-HST field at z ≈ 1.6, the bulge-like fraction rises and the disk-like fraction falls with local density, suggesting the morphology-density relation may be independent of global environment.
MINERVA medium-band photometry of four massive quiescent galaxies at z > 3 shows negative color gradients in three, which, if purely age-driven, would ease tensions with extreme value statistics models out to z ≈ 9.5, though modeling choices also matter.
Spatially resolved ages and abundances in eight massive quiescent galaxies at 1.2 ≲ z ≲ 2.2 show cores that are older, and possibly Mg-poor, compared to their outskirts, supporting inside-out quenching.
Following test-particle orbits through TIGRESS-NCR simulations of a Milky-Way-like interstellar medium, the study finds radial heating that departs from the classic t^1/3 prediction and ISM-driven migration accounting for ≳30% of that observed in the solar neighborhood.
JWST/NIRSpec IFU spectroscopy of three ultra-massive, compact quiescent galaxies at z ≈ 3.5 finds young (≈0.6–0.7 Gyr), α-enhanced cores, while two show gradients consistent with rapid merger-driven quenching and the third a flat age profile indicative of uniform quenching.
In Abell 2744, globular cluster positions modelled as an inhomogeneous Poisson process correlate more closely with predicted mass maps than any other galactic component (Spearman coefficients above 0.7), and bright blue clusters are compatible with the weak-lensing-only mass map.
In AREPO-RT simulations with enhanced thermochemistry, MESA-based spectra and supernova feedback, Pop III stars form from z > 13 until z ≈ 5, and their high-energy radiation is needed to explain high-equivalent-width HeII emission from a z ≈ 11 galaxy.
Using 608 spectroscopically confirmed GD-1 members from DESI, a Gaussian mixture model separates a cold thin stream from a hot cocoon whose velocity dispersion is consistent with about 11 Gyr of heating by cold dark matter subhalos.
A single Transformer trained across APOGEE DR17, GALAH DR3, DESI DR1, and Gaia RVS DR3 spectra yields atmospheric parameters, abundances for 20 elements, distances, and ages on one scale, with labels for stars shared between surveys consistent within model uncertainties.
A unified comparison of light, heavy, and primordial black hole seeding and growth channels against the JWST census of early massive black holes, including the over-massive systems found in metal-poor hosts.
More than 100 magnified stellar events in the lensed Dragon galaxy at z ≈ 0.725, found in three cycles of JWST imaging behind Abell 370, constrain the bright end of the stellar luminosity function and trace the cluster's critical curves.
A JWST-era look-up table collates rest-frame optical to near-infrared spectral features of quiescent galaxies by physical origin, flagging whether each line is most sensitive to age, metallicity, surface gravity, α-enhancement, electron temperature or gas density.
Using DESI DR2 radial velocities and metallicities to characterize the C-19 stream, whose large velocity dispersion is hard to explain with a purely baryonic, disrupting globular-cluster progenitor.
Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of how stellar-mass "light" seed black holes, the remnants of massive stars, form and grow inside nuclear star clusters as a possible channel toward supermassive black holes.
JWST and NOEMA observations show GNz7q at z = 7.19 is a red super-Eddington quasar in a dusty starburst host forming about 330 M⊙ per year, a rare phase that may offer a direct route to early supermassive black holes.
Keck spectroscopy of the gas-rich, globular cluster-rich group ultra-diffuse galaxy MATLAS-42 finds a young mass-weighted age of 3.2 Gyr and [M/H] ≈ −1.19 dex, suggesting it recently rejuvenated its star formation rather than following the “failed galaxy” pathway.
A review of the ten years since ultra-diffuse galaxies were discovered in the Coma cluster, focusing on quiescent UDGs and their general properties, proposed formation scenarios, internal properties and globular cluster systems.
Modeling the number counts of 1,201 clusters in the ACT DR6 Sunyaev–Zel'dovich catalog over 10,347 deg² yields local-type fNL = 55 ± 125 (68% CL), consistent with Gaussian initial conditions on comoving scales of 5–10 Mpc h⁻¹.
Spectroscopy of 19 ultra-faint compact satellites, about 2/3 of the known population, finds them kinematically colder on average than ultra-faint dwarfs and allows the possibility that up to 9 of 19 may be the least-massive galaxies yet discovered.
Synthetic HI Zeeman spectra from MHD simulations and idealized clouds show that two methods recover line-of-sight magnetic fields with relative errors of up to 16% and about 13% at typical noise, and FAST data confirm the previously reported L1544 field.
A strong-lensing model of the cluster MACS J1931.8-2635 from the JWST VENUS survey, accompanying the spectroscopically confirmed supernova SN Eos at z = 5.13 and revealing new multiply imaged systems.
Narrow and broad Hα in 27 spectroscopically confirmed Little Red Dots at 5 < z < 7.2 correlate tightly with the UV continuum, consistent with both arising mainly from young massive stars around a dense envelope enshrouding the black hole.
JWST spectra of 16 galaxies fainter than absolute UV magnitude −17 in the Abell S1063 lensing field show relatively strong [OIII] in all, indicating the mass-metallicity relation extends down to about 10⁶ solar masses at z ≈ 6.
JWST VENUS imaging finds two faint Little Red Dots about 70 pc apart and off-center in a lensed z ≈ 7 star-forming galaxy that would show no apparent LRD signatures without lensing, suggesting such LRDs may be commonly hidden.
A new free-form lens model of the cluster AS1063, built from spectroscopically confirmed lensed galaxies and ultra-deep GLIMPSE imaging, also turns up Hedorah, a lensed yellow-supergiant star candidate at z ≈ 3.7.
The Sleeper, a z = 5.95 galaxy whose star formation history indicates rapid assembly in the first 300 Myr and later suppression, has a Balmer break about 3 times stronger than any other observed in the first billion years.
Training the unsupervised UMAP algorithm on consistently classified spectra among about 1.3 million MaNGA spectra from 6,439 galaxies, the study classifies the ≈10% that change class between BPT diagrams and delineates the boundary zones where such ambiguities arise.
Deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of the z ≈ 6 Pop III candidate GLIMPSE-16043 reveals clear [OIII] emission, ruling out zero metallicity, yet its spectral energy distribution requires a Balmer jump too strong for current stellar-plus-nebular or pure nebular photoionization models.
High-resolution cosmological simulations with a 5 × 10⁷ M☉ primordial black hole seed yield accretion rates of about 1–10% Eddington, metallicities Z/Z☉ ≲ 10⁻², and extreme black-hole-to-stellar mass ratios, consistent with the JWST-observed Abell 2744-QSO1 at z ≈ 7.
Across 34 independent PANORAMIC and legacy NIRCam sightlines, z ≈ 10 galaxies show a cosmic variance of 0.96 to 1.71 per pointing as the UV cut brightens, which together with the luminosity function tentatively disfavors globally enhanced star formation efficiency.
A doubly-imaged Little Red Dot candidate (A383-LRD1) behind the cluster Abell 383, with an apparent compact blue companion, from the JWST VENUS survey.
Matching ultra-diffuse galaxies with spectroscopic dynamical masses to NIHAO and HESTIA halos reproduces their inner dynamics but not the massive halos implied by globular cluster counts, suggesting their dark matter profiles may differ fundamentally from simulated ones.
Treating an ensemble of spectra as a multivariate Gaussian, GSPICE estimates each pixel's expected flux and variance from the other pixels and, applied to 3.9 million LAMOST stellar spectra, can identify and correct cosmic-ray hits and wavelength-calibration errors.
The Misty Moons, a lensed galaxy at z ≈ 11–12 behind MACS J0257.1-2325, resolves into roughly 10⁷ M☉ stellar clumps with effective radii of about 10–70 pc that hold ≳80% of its stellar mass, suggesting highly clustered early star formation.
Modeling black-hole merger rates in the first billion years to test light- versus heavy-seed scenarios against the abundance of faint AGN that JWST finds at z = 4–9.
A toy model tracing observed ultradiffuse galaxies back to z = 2 finds 443 failed galaxy progenitor candidates in MAGNETICUM with flatter, cored dark matter halos, more extended stellar bodies, lower metallicities and higher star formation rates than controls.
A major update to the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code COLT adds thermal equilibrium and level population solvers plus primordial nebular continuum emission, reproducing observed emission-line ratios when applied to the high-redshift THESAN-ZOOM simulations.
JWST/NIRSpec IFU maps of 18 main-sequence galaxies at z = 4–6 generally show mild central line-ratio enhancements and a nearly flat median metallicity gradient (0.02 ± 0.01 dex per kpc), implying efficient chemical mixing through inflows, outflows, and mergers.
At fixed stellar mass in the XMM-LSS field, environment may help trigger IR-selected AGN, which are more common in denser regions at z > 1.2 but in sparser ones below, while X-ray AGN show no significant density dependence.
JWST NIRSpec IFU and NIRCam data for 18 main-sequence galaxies at z = 4.4–5.7 give a best-fit stellar-to-nebular dust attenuation ratio of 0.51, so assuming a ratio of 1 underestimates their ionizing photon production efficiency by about 4–46%.
The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST survey combines kpc-resolved HST, JWST, and ALMA imaging and spectroscopy of 18 main-sequence galaxies at z = 4–6 to resolve their stars, gas, and dust together.
Orientation-aware summary statistics of the superclustering of hot gas in the WebSky simulations, sharpening the cosmological sensitivity of thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and galaxy cross-correlations.
WebSky [CII] line-intensity mock maps that forecast upcoming wide-field submillimeter surveys (matched to CCAT) of cosmological [CII] emission from the epoch of reionization.
Physics-constrained neural fields paired with RadJAX, a differentiable line radiative transfer solver up to 10,000 times faster than conventional ray tracers, recover a narrowing and flattening CO emission surface beyond 400 au in ALMA data of HD 163296.
Ultra-deep lensed JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy in Abell S1063 finds eight secure and two tentative broad-line AGNs at 4.5 < z < 7.0 with black hole masses down to about 10⁵·⁵ M☉, where models suggest an excess may come from direct collapse.
New S⁵ spectroscopy plus about 15 years of archival data yield 148 members of the ultra-faint dwarf Boötes I, a 4σ velocity gradient aligned with its orbit, and Jeans-model constraints that weakly favor a cusped dark matter profile.
Chemically selected APOGEE DR17 and Gaia stars give a Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus anisotropy of β ≈ 0.9 beyond 8 kpc dropping to β ≈ 0.4 at 2 kpc, a decline that raises the inferred mass from 1.5 to 2.29 × 10⁸ M☉.
An updated SIDES simulation using revised galaxy and AGN templates reproduces the observed JWST MIRI number counts, with AGN dominating above about 20 μJy and surveys below 25 arcmin² facing about 30% cosmic-variance uncertainty in bright AGN counts.
IllustrisTNG simulations indicate that higher-density filaments favor extended rotationally supported disks and predict that Roman's planned HLWAS spectroscopic depth would not accurately trace the z = 1 cosmic web, whereas a survey ≥2.5 times deeper would enable proper reconstruction.
In CANUCS galaxies at 0.5 < z < 5, the clump stellar mass function slope (α = −2) is flatter in massive hosts (α ≈ −1.6) and flattens as clumps age, a trend interpreted as long-term survival of massive clumps.
THESAN-ZOOM simulations show smoothly curved mass-metallicity relations already in place at z ≈ 12, governed by how well galaxies retain their metals, while the fundamental metallicity relation inverts for gas in low-mass galaxies.
An overview of MINERVA, a JWST Cycle 4 treasury program of 8-band NIRCam medium-band and MIRI imaging across four CANDELS fields, designed to uncover distant and dust-obscured galaxies.
A morphological study of optical Galactic cirrus in deep imaging, using intensity statistics, angular power spectra, and wavelets to characterize the diffuse interstellar medium.
Feeding cold-gas fractions and star-formation efficiencies from the SPHINX20 radiation-hydrodynamics simulation into the DELPHI semi-analytic model to explain the abundance of bright galaxies at z ≥ 11 and the drivers of reionization.
A NIRCam-based search across ~500 arcmin² of JWST legacy fields turns up GLIMPSE-16043, a promising ultra-faint Population III galaxy candidate at z ≈ 6.5, and sets first limits on the Pop III UV luminosity function.
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