Star-Forming Galaxies When the Universe Was ~1 Gyr Old: Insights from the CRISTAL Survey — Rodrigo Herrera Camus (Universidad de Concepción)

The CRISTAL survey explores how typical galaxies formed and evolved when the Universe was only one billion years old. By combining high-resolution ALMA observations of gas and dust with JWST and HST imaging of stars and young stellar regions, CRISTAL provides one of the most detailed views to date of the internal structure of early star-forming galaxies (Herrera-Camus et al. 2025).

These galaxies display a wide range of morphologies –from rotating disks to interacting systems and clumpy star formation– and often show gas emission extending beyond the stellar light. The survey reveals how gas, dust, and stars are connected during the rapid growth phase of galaxies at high redshift. With JWST/NIRSpec, we are now tracing the ionized gas and young stellar populations, gaining a comprehensive view of how galaxies build up their mass and structure during the Universe’s first billion years.