Survey Overview
UNCOVER official program info
UNCOVER is a JWST Cycle 1 public Treasury survey that will obtain deep NIRCam multiband imaging and ultradeep low-resolution NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy of the Frontier Field Abell 2744.
Thanks to the strong lensing boost and the deep observations, UNCOVER will be uniquely positioned to address two core JWST science goals: identifying first-light galaxies at z>10, and characterizing the ultra-low luminosity galaxies that drive reionization at z~6-7. Other science enabled by UNCOVER include stellar mass complete studies to z~10; probing the role of dust at high redshift; and the various pathways of quenching star formation out to early times.
Deep NIRCam / 7 filters 1-5 microns to ~30AB
Ultradeep NIRSpec/PRISM R~100 from 0.6-5 um spectroscopy to ~29AB
Science
51hr primary / 49hr parallel (71 hours with overheads)
Deep NIRCam (4-6 hours) / 7 filters 1-5 microns to ~30AB (F115W, F150W, F200W, F227W, F356W, F410M, F444W)
Ultradeep NIRSpec/PRISM R~30-300 from 0.6-5 microns spectroscopy to ~29AB (up to 20 hours/object)
First Galaxies
The integrated star formation history is barely constrained at z≳8, and very few galaxies at z>10 are currently known. The deep UNCOVER imaging (to 30AB) and spectra (continuum to 29AB) will enable us to constrain the physical properties of these first-light galaxies, including their star formation efficiency.
Reionization
Current studies disagree about the faint end slope of the z~6 UV luminosity function. The deep and high spatial resolution observations from UNCOVER will resolve this question through detailed constraints on the faint end slope. Additionally, UNCOVER spectra of faint Lyman Break Galaxies will constrain the ionizing photon production rate and the escape fraction at the epoch of reionization.
Mass complete studies out to z~10
A key test for galaxy formation models is the evolution of the stellar mass function, but probing the faint end slope at high redshift requires ultra-deep data. With UNCOVER, we will be able to probe the full stellar mass function out to z=10, which will place constraints on the stellar mass-halo mass relation and thus the overall efficiency of galaxy formation.
Quenching to low mass and high redshift
At low redshift, satellite quenching leads to an upturn in the quiescent galaxy number density distribution. Current HST/Spitzer observations are not deep enough to probe whether this upturn is also in place at higher redshifts, as might be expected from the old (≳7 Gyr) ages for dwarf ellipticals in the local Universe. The deep UNCOVER imaging and spectra will allow us to identify and characterize quiescent satellites as soon as they emerge, enabling a full picture of satellite quenching over cosmic time.
Dusty galaxies at z>4
Though dusty star-formation dominates the SFR density below z~2, dust is not expected to play a large role at earlier times. However, dusty star formation is not well constrained at z>3. UNCOVER will detect any obscured galaxy with mass >109 M☉ out to z=9, if they exist, and can spectroscopically confirm this population to 28 AB mag.
Data releases
Acknowledgement
Please cite the survey paper (Bezanson et al. 2024)
for any publications using UNCOVER data products,
as well the other publications noted for specific releases.
For Data Release 3 and later:
for all data products
that use Medium Band and F070W/F090W observations
from the
MegaScience survey (GO-4111; PI:Suess),
please also cite the MegaScience survey paper
(Suess et al. 2024)
in any publications using UNCOVER+MegaScience data products.
Publications
Survey & Release Publications
The JWST UNCOVER Treasury survey: Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization
- Bezanson, R., Labbe, I., Whitaker, K. E., et al.,
2024, ApJ 974 92
UNCOVERing the extended strong lensing structures of Abell 2744 with the deepest JWST imaging
- Furtak, L. J., Zitrin, A., Weaver, J. R., et al.,
2023, MNRAS 523 4568
The UNCOVER Survey: A First-look HST + JWST Catalog of 60,000 Galaxies near A2744 and beyond
- Weaver, J. R., Cutler, S. E., Pan, R., et al.,
2024, ApJS 270 7
The UNCOVER Survey: A First-Look HST+JWST Catalog of Galaxy Redshifts and Stellar Populations Properties Spanning 0.2≲z≲15
- Wang, B., Leja, J., Labbe, I., et al.,
2024, ApJS 270 12
The UNCOVER Survey: Initial Release of Ultradeep JWST/NIRSpec PRISM spectra for ~700 galaxies from z~0.3-13 in Abell 2744
- Price, S. H., Bezanson, R., Labbe, I., et al.,
2025, ApJ 982 51
DUALZ – Deep UNCOVER-ALMA Legacy High-Z Survey
- Fujimoto, S., Bezanson, R., Labbe, I., et al.,
2025, ApJS 278 45
All Publications
See our library on SciX for the full list of collaboration publications!
- PI Ivo Labbe (Swinburne)
- co-PI Rachel Bezanson (Pitt)
- Hakim Atek (IAP)
- Gabe Brammer (DAWN)
- Emilie Burnham (Penn State)
- Dan Coe (STScI)
- Iryna Chemerynska (IAP)
- Sam Cutler (UMass-Amherst)
- Pratika Dayal (CITA/UToronto)
- Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)
- James Esdaile (Swinburne)
- Robert Feldmann (Zurich)
- Natascha Förster Schreiber (MPE)
- Marijn Franx (Leiden)
- Yoshi Fudamoto (Waseda)
- Seiji Fujimoto (UToronto)
- Lukas Furtak (UT-Austin)
- Marla Geha (Yale)
- Karl Glazebrook (Swinburne)
- Andy Goulding (Princeton)
- Anna de Graaff (MPIA)
- Jenny Greene (Princeton)
- Stephanie Juneau (NOIRLab)
- Susan Kassin (STScI)
- Gourav Khullar (UW)
- Vasily Kokorev (Kapteyn/Groningen)
- Mariska Kriek (Leiden)
- Joel Leja (Penn State)
- Daniel Lyon (Swinburne)
- Danilo Marchesini (Tufts)
- Michael Maseda (Wisconsin)
- Tim Miller (Northwestern)
- Lamiya Mowla (Toronto)
- Marcie Mun (IAP)
- Adam Muzzin (York)
- Themiya Nanayakkara (USydney)
- Erica Nelson (CU-Boulder)
- Pascal Oesch (Geneva)
- Camilla Pacifici (STScI)
- Richard Pan (Tufts)
- Casey Papovich (TAMU)
- Alan Pearl (Pitt)
- Sedona Price (STScI)
- David Setton (JHU)
- Alice Shapley (UCLA)
- Wren Suess (CU-Boulder)
- Renske Smit (Liverpool John Moores)
- Mimi Song (UMass-Amherst)
- Mauro Stefanon (Leiden)
- Ned Taylor (Swinburne)
- Bingjie Wang (Princeton)
- John Weaver (MIT)
- Andrea Weibel (Geneva)
- Kate Whitaker (UMass-Amherst)
- Christina Williams (NOIRLab)
- Yunchong Zhang (Pitt)
- Adi Zitrin (Ben Gurion)
Survey builders are denoted in bold.
(Builders are team members, often junior, whose significant contributions were essential to the survey.
Builders have the right to be included in every UNCOVER paper.)
Contact
Send us an email at jwstuncover - at - gmail.com !
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