Mock Galaxy Surveys for HST and JWST from the IllustrisTNG Simulations

TL;DR

This paper creates synthetic galaxy survey data based on the IllustrisTNG simulations, producing mock images and catalogs for JWST and HST, to aid in galaxy evolution studies and support observational planning.

Contribution

It introduces a publicly available set of mock galaxy catalogs and images tailored for JWST and HST, derived from the IllustrisTNG simulations, with tools for community use.

Findings

Generated 12 lightcone catalogs covering 5 to 365 sq. arcmin.

Produced mock images in JWST-NIRCam and HST filters.

Demonstrated applications in galaxy morphology and pair analysis.

Abstract

We present and analyze a series of synthetic galaxy survey fields based on the IllustrisTNG Simulation suite. With the Illustris public data release and JupyterLab service, we generated a set of twelve lightcone catalogs covering areas from 5 to 365 square arcminutes, similar to several JWST Cycle 1 programs, including JADES, CEERS, PRIMER, and NGDEEP. From these catalogs, we queried the public API to generate simple mock images in a series of broadband filters used by JWST-NIRCam and the Hubble Space Telescope cameras. This procedure generates wide-area simulated mosaic images that can support investigating the predicted evolution of galaxies alongside real data. Using these mocks, we demonstrate a few simple science cases, including morphological evolution and close pair selection. We publicly release the catalogs and mock images through MAST, along with the code used to generate these projects, so that the astrophysics community can make use of these products in their scientific analyses of JWST deep field observations.