The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS)

Abstract

We present the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, a 77.2 hr Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science Program. CEERS demonstrates, tests, and validates efficient extragalactic surveys using coordinated, overlapping parallel observations with the JWST instrument suite, including NIRCam and MIRI imaging, NIRSpec low- (R ∼ 100) and medium- (R ∼ 1000) resolution spectroscopy, and NIRCam slitless grism (R ∼ 1500) spectroscopy. CEERS targets the Hubble Space Telescope–observed region of the Extended Groth Strip field, supported by a rich set of multiwavelength data. CEERS facilitated immediate community science in both of the extragalactic core JWST science drivers “First Light” and “Galaxy Assembly,” including: (1) the discovery and characterization of large samples of galaxies at z ≳ 10 from ∼90 arcmin2 of NIRCam imaging, constraining their abundance and physical nature; (2) deep spectra of >1000 galaxies, including dozens of galaxies at 6 < z < 10, enabling redshift measurements and constraints on the physical conditions of star formation and black hole growth via line diagnostics; (3) quantifying the first bulge, bar, and disk structures at z > 3; and (4) characterizing galaxy mid-IR emission with MIRI to study dust-obscured star formation and supermassive black hole growth at z ∼ 1–3. As a legacy product for the community, the CEERS team has provided several data releases, accompanied by detailed notes on the data reduction procedures and notebooks to aid in reproducibility. In addition to an overview of the survey and the quality of the data, we provide science highlights from the first two years with CEERS data.