The Cosmic Frontier

The first 500 million years after the Big Bang is a frontier full of promise and puzzles for galaxy formation and cosmology. While technological limitations previously hid this epoch from view, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations now illuminate the end of the Cosmic Dark Ages, shedding light on the formation of the earliest stars, galaxies, and black holes. Galaxies exist earlier and in greater numbers than expected, and accreting supermassive black holes appear to be ubiquitous in the early universe. We see enriched, massive galaxies coexisting with candidates for primordial, metal-poor systems. Confronting pre-JWST theoretical expectations with these observations requires observers and simulators to share their ideas in a collaborative environment. CFC2025 will bring together observers and theorists for a four-day conference to discuss the:

• Origin of Stars: When did the first stars form out of primordial hydrogen and helium, ending the Cosmic Dark Ages? How did the first heavy chemical elements, formed in the cores of these enigmatic stars, affect the evolution of the cosmos?
• Origin of Galaxies: When and how did the first galaxies form? How did they drive cosmic reionization, the last major phase transition in our Universe?
• Origin of Black Holes: How did supermassive black holes, ubiquitous in today’s galaxies and present in surprising numbers only one billion years after the Big Bang, form and grow? How did they affect the evolution of galaxies?

CFC2025 is hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s vibrant new Cosmic Frontier Center (CFC; further information is available on the CFC website), which aims to improve our understanding of the early universe from a unified observational and theoretical perspective.