Stellar populations at Low Metallicity: the JWST WINGS survey of star-forming systems
Olivia C. Jones,Abstract
The JWST Resolved Stellar Populations WINGS (Webb INfrared Galaxies and Stars) guaranteed time programme (PI M. Meixner) has uniformly observed metal-poor star-forming galaxies in the local Universe with NIRCam and MIRI to spatially resolve and characterise their complex stellar populations. Complementary NIRSpec and MIRI/MRS spectroscopy have also been obtained for a subset of these targets. The WINGS programme observed four local star-forming systems over a range of enrichment levels, including N79 in the LMC (Z = 0.5 Z ⊙ ), NGC 346 in the SMC (Z = 0.2 Z ⊙ ), NGC 6822 (Z = 0.3 Z ⊙ ), and I Zw 18 (Z = 0.03 Z ⊙ ) from 1.15 – 21 μ m. These observing programmes were designed to understand the origins and evolution of dust and characterise the star-formation mechanisms of early Universe-like systems, with conditions analogous to cosmic noon ( z ∼ 1.5–2), when such activity peaked. This programme has set the standard for future resolved stellar population studies of star-forming systems with JWST. Here I summarise the first papers and results of the WINGS survey.