About the Cosmic Frontier Center

Guiding Questions

When did the first stars form out of the primordial hydrogen and helium made in the Big Bang, heralding the end of the Cosmic Dark Ages?
How did the first heavy chemical elements formed in their cores affect the evolution of the cosmos?
When and how did the first galaxies, the earliest progenitors of galaxies like our Milky Way, form?
How did these early galaxies accomplish cosmic reionization, the last major phase change in our universe?
How did the seeds for the supermassive black holes residing in today’s galaxies form and grow in the early universe?
How did these early black holes affect the evolution of galaxies and cosmic reionization?

UT Austin astronomers have been at the forefront of frontier discoveries.

Our team has earned nearly 10% of all the time allotted for the James Webb Space Telescope—the most time awarded competitively to any single institution.
Our faculty are active members of Euclid Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
We are also a founding partner of The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).
UT Austin is home to TACC, the Texas Advanced Computing Center, and the most powerful supercomputer at a university, Frontera.

Cosmic Frontier Center researchers are involved in the following JWST programs:

The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS). CEERS is providing humanity's first glimpses into the early cosmic epoch. By testing multiple JWST observational modes, CEERS allows for a wide discovery space. It is led by CFC's Steven Finkelstein and involves multiple UT Austin researchers.
COSMOS-Web. As the largest of the initial JWST projects, COSMOS-Web explores a vast area of the cosmos to identify the most massive objects in the early universe. It is co-led by the CFC's Caitlin Casey and involves multiple UT Austin researchers.
The Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Survey (NGDEEP). NGDEEP is crafting JWST’s equivalent of Hubble’s renowned deep field, combining imaging and spectroscopy to deepen our understanding of the early universe. It is led by CFC's Steven Finkelstein and involves multiple UT Austin researchers.
GLIMPSE. GLIMPSE aims to obtain ultra-deep imaging observations of a galaxy cluster. This cluster's extraordinary mass serves as a natural magnifying glass, enabling observations of ultra-faint, extremely distant galaxies.