TY - JOUR
T1 - The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) II
T2 - Depth, resolution, and NIR coverage from JWST reveals 17 spectacular lenses
AU - Mahler, Guillaume
AU - Nightingale, James W.
AU - Hogg, Natalie B.
AU - Gozaliasl, Ghassem
AU - McCleary, Jacqueline
AU - He, Qiuhan
AU - Berman, Edward
AU - Franco, Maximilien
AU - Liu, Daizhong
AU - Massey, Richard J.
AU - Mercier, Wilfried
AU - Scognamiglio, Diana
AU - Shuntov, Marko
AU - Von Wietersheim-Kramsta, Maximilian
AU - Paquereau, Louise
AU - Ilbert, Olivier
AU - Allen, Natalie
AU - Toft, Sune
AU - Akins, Hollis B.
AU - Casey, Caitlin M.
AU - Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - McCracken, Henry Joy
AU - Rhodes, Jason D.
AU - Robertson, Brant E.
AU - Zavala, Jorge A.
AU - Drakos, Nicole E.
AU - Faisst, Andreas L.
AU - Magdis, Georgios E.
AU - Jin, Shuowen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) presents the first systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the COSMOS-Web field using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using high-resolution NIRCam imaging, we visually inspected over 42 660 galaxies and identified over 400 lensing candidates. Here, we report the 17 most obvious and spectacular strong lensing systems, distinguished by large Einstein rings, arcs, and distinct lens and source colours. These diverse lenses, identified only through visual inspection of lens-light-subtracted images, represent the extremes of lens parameter space. Exceptionally high signal-to-noise, multiwavelength imaging enables unprecedented lensing analysis, including 'HST-dark' source galaxies that are also invisible in deeper but bluer JWST wavebands: enabling clean deblending between the lens and the source. Some sources exhibit dramatic morphological changes across wavelengths, and patterns of dust absorption within lenses. No other current facility, including the Hubble Space Telescope, can discover or image such lenses with comparable detail. We estimate that JWST uncovers a new spectacular lens approximately every 10 to 12 NIRCam pointings, suggesting that over 40 similar lenses remain undiscovered within its first three years of observations. All COWLS data are publicly available on GitHub.
AB - The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) presents the first systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the COSMOS-Web field using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using high-resolution NIRCam imaging, we visually inspected over 42 660 galaxies and identified over 400 lensing candidates. Here, we report the 17 most obvious and spectacular strong lensing systems, distinguished by large Einstein rings, arcs, and distinct lens and source colours. These diverse lenses, identified only through visual inspection of lens-light-subtracted images, represent the extremes of lens parameter space. Exceptionally high signal-to-noise, multiwavelength imaging enables unprecedented lensing analysis, including 'HST-dark' source galaxies that are also invisible in deeper but bluer JWST wavebands: enabling clean deblending between the lens and the source. Some sources exhibit dramatic morphological changes across wavelengths, and patterns of dust absorption within lenses. No other current facility, including the Hubble Space Telescope, can discover or image such lenses with comparable detail. We estimate that JWST uncovers a new spectacular lens approximately every 10 to 12 NIRCam pointings, suggesting that over 40 similar lenses remain undiscovered within its first three years of observations. All COWLS data are publicly available on GitHub.
KW - Galaxies: structure
KW - Gravitational lensing: strong
U2 - 10.1093/mnrasl/slaf088
DO - 10.1093/mnrasl/slaf088
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:105016887650
SN - 1745-3925
VL - 544
SP - L8-L14
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
IS - 1
ER -