PANORAMIC - A Pure Parallel Wide Area Legacy Imaging Survey at 1-5 Micron

Abstract

Where HST has characterized the UV universe to z=6-7 and beyond, JWST is designed to take the crucial next step and characterize the UV universe to z=12-15 (a factor of 2 in expansion rate), at only ~300 Myr after the Big Bang where we expect the first galaxies to form. Additionally, JWST for the first time allows studies of the restframe optical emission to z=10, a huge leap from the current z=3 (HST). To fully capitalize on JWST's unparalleled imaging AND spectroscopic capabilities, it is critical, however, to find the most precious intrinsically luminous candidate galaxies early in the mission. Large area imaging is thus needed from day one. Here, we propose to exploit the unique opportunity offered by pure parallel observing to efficiently obtain such a wide-area reference survey over 0.4 sq degrees in 6 NIRCam filters. By probing 7x larger area than any other currently planned (GTO/ERS) program our survey will probe a unique discovery space with unprecedented imaging at 1-5micron. These data overcome two major outstanding limitations in our current extragalactic census using yet-undiscovered populations: (1) the brightest and most distant sources that ended the cosmic Dark Ages at z>9 and (2) red sources at