NEXUS Early Data Release: NIRCam Imaging and WFSS Spectroscopy from the First (Partial) Wide Epoch

TL;DR

The NEXUS Early Data Release provides initial JWST NIRCam imaging and WFSS spectroscopy data covering the NEXUS field, enabling early scientific exploration and future detailed studies of this region.

Contribution

This paper presents the first public release of NIRCam imaging and WFSS spectra from the NEXUS JWST program, establishing a foundational dataset for ongoing and future research.

Findings

High-quality NIRCam imaging reaching 27.4–28.2 AB mag depths.

Preliminary WFSS spectra for bright sources in the field.

Demonstration of data quality and potential science applications.

Abstract

We present the Early Data Release of the Multi-Cycle JWST-NEXUS Treasury program (2024-2028), which includes NIRCam imaging and WFSS observations from the first (partial) NEXUS-Wide epoch covering the central 100 ${\rm arcmin^2}$ of the NEXUS field, located near the North Ecliptic Pole and within the Euclid Ultra-Deep Field. We release reduced NIRCam mosaics (F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F356W, F444W), photometric source catalogs, as well as preliminary WFSS spectra (in F322W2 and F444W) for the subset of bright sources (F356W$<$21 mag or F444W$<$21 mag). These observations fully cover the NEXUS-Deep area, and anchor the long-term baseline of the program. These data will be used for initial target selection for the NIRSpec/MSA spectroscopy starting from June 2025. The NIRCam imaging reaches depths of 27.4--28.2 (AB) mags in F090W--F444W. Upcoming NEXUS-Wide epochs will expand the area to the full $\sim 400\,{\rm arcmin^2}$, and improve the NIRCam exposure depths in the Wide tier by a factor of three. In addition, this central region will be repeatedly covered by the NEXUS-Deep observations (NIRCam imaging and NIRSpec/MSA PRISM spectroscopy) over 18 epochs with a $\sim 2$-month cadence. We demonstrate the data quality of the first NEXUS observations, and showcase some example science cases enabled by these data.