The PHANGS-JWST Treasury Survey: Star Formation, Feedback, and Dust Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS
Creators: name: Lee, Janice C.
name: Sandstrom, Karin M.
name: Leroy, Adam K.
name: Thilker, David A.
name: Schinnerer, Eva
name: Rosolowsky, Erik
name: Larson, Kirsten L.
name: Egorov, Oleg V.
name: Williams, Thomas G.
name: Schmidt, Judy
name: Emsellem, Eric
name: Anand, Gagandeep S.
name: Barnes, Ashley T.
name: Belfiore, Francesco
name: Beslic, Ivana
name: Bigiel, Frank
name: Blanc, Guillermo A.
name: Bolatto, Alberto D.
name: Boquien, Mederic
name: Brok, Jakob den
name: Cao, Yixian
name: Chandar, Rupali
name: Chastenet, Jeremy
name: Chevance, Melanie
name: Chiang, I-Da
name: Congiu, Enrico
name: Dale, Daniel A.
name: Deger, Sinan
name: Eibensteiner, Cosima
name: Faesi, Christopher M.
name: Glover, Simon C. O.
name: Grasha, Kathryn
name: Groves, Brent
name: Hassani, Hamid
name: Henny, Kiana F.
name: Henshaw, Jonathan D.
name: Hoyer, Nils
name: Hughes, Annie
name: Jeffreson, Sarah
name: Jimenez-Donaire, Marıa J.
name: Kim, Jaeyeon
name: Kim, Hwihyun
name: Klessen, Ralf S.
name: Koch, Eric W.
name: Kreckel, Kathryn
name: Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik
name: Li, Jing
name: Liu, Daizhong
name: Lopez, Laura A.
name: Maschmann, Daniel
name: Chen, Ness Mayker
name: Meidt, Sharon E.
name: Murphy, Eric J.
name: Neumann, Justus
name: Neumayer, Nadine
name: Pan, Hsi-An
name: Pessa, Ismael
name: Pety, Jerome
name: Querejeta, Miguel
name: Pinna, Francesca
name: Rodrıguez, M. Jimena
name: Saito, Toshiki
name: Sanchez-Blazquez, Patricia
name: Santoro, Francesco
name: Sardone, Amy
name: Smith, Rowan J.
name: Sormani, Mattia C.
name: Scheuermann, Fabian
name: Stuber, Sophia K.
name: Sutter, Jessica
name: Sun, Jiayi
name: Teng, Yu-Hsuan
name: Tress, Robin G.
name: Usero, Antonio
name: Watkins, Elizabeth J.
name: Whitmore, Bradley C.
name: Razza, Alessandro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The PHANGS collaboration has been building a reference dataset for the multi-scale, multi-phase study of star formation and the interstellar medium in nearby galaxies. With the successful launch and commissioning of JWST, we can now obtain high-resolution infrared imaging to probe the youngest stellar populations and dust emission on the scales of star clusters and molecular clouds ($\sim$5-50 pc). In Cycle 1, PHANGS is conducting an 8-band imaging survey from 2-21$μ$m of 19 nearby spiral galaxies. CO(2-1) mapping, optical integral field spectroscopy, and UV-optical imaging for all 19 galaxies have been obtained through large programs with ALMA, VLT/MUSE, and Hubble. PHANGS-JWST enables a full inventory of star formation, accurate measurement of the mass and age of star clusters, identification of the youngest embedded stellar populations, and characterization of the physical state of small dust grains. When combined with Hubble catalogs of $\sim$10,000 star clusters, MUSE spectroscopic mapping of $\sim$20,000 HII regions, and $\sim$12,000 ALMA-identified molecular clouds, it becomes possible to measure the timescales and efficiencies of the earliest phases of star formation and feedback, build an empirical model of the dependence of small dust grain properties on local ISM conditions, and test our understanding of how dust-reprocessed starlight traces star formation activity, all across a diversity of galactic environments. Here we describe the PHANGS-JWST Treasury survey, present the remarkable imaging obtained in the first few months of science operations, and provide context for the initial results presented in the first series of PHANGS-JWST publications.
description: Re-submitted after addressing minor comments from referee. To be published as part of PHANGS-JWST ApJL Focus Issue