The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is a an international basic research center supported by the Danish National Research Foundation located in Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, and at the Space division of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Space). 

 

 

The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is located in Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, and at the Space division of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Space). It is a international basic research center supported by the Danish National Research Foundation. 

The center is dedicated to uncovering how and when the first galaxies, stars and black holes formed, through observations with the prime telescopes of the next decade (ALMA, JWST, Euclid, E-ELT, HST) as well as through theory and simulations.

DAWN Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The center will run the DAWN fellowship program, with annual calls in the autumn. Fellows are expected to carry out independent research programs in areas related to the activities at the center, in collaboration with DAWN scientists both in Copenhagen and at international associate institutes.

DAWN PhD Program

The center will run an international PhD program, with annual calls every autumn. DAWN students will typically be co-supervised by DAWN scientists in Copenhagen and at international associate institutes, with the possibility of spending considerable time abroad.

Funding Partners

The Danish National Research Foundation provides primary funding for the Cosmic DAWN Center of Excellence (CoE), which started in 2018. Funding is up to 10 years and  divided on two granting periods that run for 6 and 4 years respectively.  All publications with DAWN employees and affiliates as authors, must be acknowledged like this DNRF140.

In addition to this, DAWN will support its members to obtain personal grants from Danish and international funding agencies. Scientists at DAWN currently hold the following grants

  • Danmarks Grundforksningsfond: "Cosmic Dawn" (Sune Toft)
  • Villum Young Investigator Program Plus, "The Hidden Cosmos", (Georgios Magdis, 2021-2024)
  • Villum Young Investigator Program, "Understanding the First Billion Years", (Charlotte Mason, 2021-2026)
  • Villum Experiment: "The Binocular Large Area Survey Telescope" (Kasper Heintz, 2022-2024)
  • The DFF project: “The First generations of Galaxies” (Darach Watson)
  • Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond: "Galactic Gas Recycling" (Lise Christensen, 2022-2026)
  • Funding by the Carlsberg Foundation:
    • Research Infrastructure Grant: “NOT Transient Explorer” (Johan Fynbo)
    • Research Infrastructure Grant: “GISMO and the Greenland Telescope: A New Window to the Universe” (Thomas Greve)
    • Young Researcher Fellowship: "Protoclusters and Supermassive Black Holes" (Thomas Greve) 
    • Reintegration Fellowships: "FRB Origins Through Host Galaxy Studies" (Kasper Heintz, 2022-2024)
    • Reintegration Fellowships: “Physical Properties of the Interstellar Medium in Luminous Infrared Galaxies at High Redshift” (Bitten Gullberg)

Previous grants include 

  • The ERC Consolidator Project: "Connecting the Extreme" (Sune Toft)
  • The Villum Young Investigator Project: “Gas to dust, dust to stars” (Georgios Magdis, 2016-2021)
  • Carlsbergfondet postdoc stipend: "Galaxies: Rise and Death (GRAD)" (Francesco Valentino)

Read more about our Funding Partners

 

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DAWN's research is focused on the specific period in the history of the Universe known as Cosmic Dawn. This previously unexplored period, 300-600 million years after the big bang is when the first stars, black holes and galaxies are believed to have formed.

The Cosmic Dawn Center is involved in a number of observational surveys, utilizing multiple instruments and telescopes. The abundant data emerging from these tools is analyzed through both theoretical models and numerical simulations.

We study the birth, life, and death of galaxies. Additionally, we study the smaller scales, namely the gas and dust that lies in between the galaxies' stars — the interstellar medium — and the larger scales, namely the effect that the galaxies have on their environment in the early Universe; the so-called Epoch of Reionization.

First Galaxies

James Webb Space TelescopeGalaxies are the building blocks of the Universe, and understanding how, and how soon, these enigmatic structures of gas, stars, and dark matter arose, is an observationally challenging task, since it involves detecting the faintest sources, almost at the edge of the observable Universe.

The currently most distant — and hence earliest — galaxy is seen at an epoch where the Universe was only 400 million years old, 3% of its current age. The first stars were formed at half this age, but have not yet been observed directly.

DAWN is involved in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched in December 2021, providing unprecedented deep exposures of some of the very first galaxies and protogalaxies.

Galaxy evolution

Galaxies evolve through both internal and external processes: Gas is converted to stars which pollute the interstellar medium with heavy elements, some of which form dust grains. Spiral arms form, and gas is ejected as galactic winds, triggered by the feedback of stars and quasars. At the same time, galaxies accrete new gas from the intergalactic medium, and merge with other galaxies.

The interplay between these processes determines the fate of a galaxy — whether it will turn out a flat and star-forming spiral galaxy, an elliptical, red and "dead" galaxy, or something else.

The evolution takes place over timescales of hundreds of millions of years, and hence cannot be observed "live". But studying the statistical properties of large samples of galaxy populations through observational surveys and theoretical modeling, DAWN continuously contributes to expand our cosmological horizon.

Quenching

Some galaxies continue to form stars from the time they are formed and until today. The beautiful bluish spiral galaxies are an example of this. However, others — typically the most massive and elliptical galaxies — at some point cease to form stars. As the short-lived, blue stars die out and the long-lived, red ones remain, these galaxies get their characteristic orange-reddish color.

What is the cause of this so-called quenching? When did it happen, and why doesn't star formation stop in all galaxies? What is the role of galaxy merging versus the role of stellar feedback and active galactic nucleus activity? These are questions that DAWN seeks to answer, using telescopes such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and the Very Large Telescope.

The interstellar medium

Whether stars die with a whimper or with a bang, they return their gas to the space in between them, only now it is polluted with heavier elements, or metals.

These elements are important in several ways: Not only the metals themselves, but also the molecules and the dust that they form, affect observations both in emission and in absorption. Acting as a coolant, they facilitate star formation, and through the many electronic transitions of metals and molecules and the large cross sections of dust grains they engender massive outflows through stellar and galactic winds.

These processes are interesting in themselves, but also have major impacts on the evolution of galaxies. Analyzing the interstellar medium is thus pivotal to understand galaxies. Notably, DAWN searches for signatures of some of the first molecules to form, such as carbon monoxide.

Reionization

In addition to all the action happening in the Universe in the form of planets forming, stars exploding, galaxies forming, etc., through its history the Universe has also experienced a number of global transitions. Most of these took place in the early Universe, in particular during the Big Bang.

When the Universe had cooled enough that neutral atoms could form, it remained neutral for several hundred millions of years. However, roughly half a billion years after the Big Bang, a global phase transition took place, where the entire vast space between the galaxies was re-ionized.

The sources of the ionizing radiation was probably hot stars in the first galaxies, but quasars also played a role. The transition was fast, cosmologically speaking, but exactly how did it progress? And how clumpy was the reionization? Before the epoch of reionization, light from galaxies has a hard time traveling through the Universe, but if reionization happened in a percolative manner, with large ionized bubbles around some galaxies, these may still be detected. DAWN investigates this interesting epoch in particular through numerical simulations.

Instruments:

James Webb Space Telescope:

James Webb Space TelescopeThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is designed to study the stars and gas in the first galaxies. JWST primary mirror is 6.5 m in diameter, and it is equipped with 4 infrared instruments for imaging and spectroscopy. DAWN scientists have partaken in the construction of three of these instruments (NIRSpec, MIRI and NIRISS), and will be involved in the analysis of the first data from the telescope. Check out more at https://jwst.nasa.gov/index.html.

Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA):

ALMA telescopeALMA is the worlds largest radio telescope, located on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the highest and driest places on Earth.

Astronomers at DAWN use ALMA to study the emission lines and continuum from the cold and dusty environments that compose the interstellar medium (ISM). The reason behind this is the fact the molecular hydrogen - a fuel for star formation, can only exist in these cold regions of the galaxy. The investigation of these environments is complimentary to the study of hot gas and stellar emission and is imperative in furthering our understanding of galaxy evolution.

The telescope is composed of 66 high precision antennae, each with a diameter of 12m, which act together as a single telescope. ALMA is designed to observe emission from cold dust and gas in the early Universe, complementing JWSTs observations of the hot gas and stars in the first galaxies.  For more information check out http://www.almaobservatory.org/ 

Euclid mission:

Euclid MissionFollowing its launch in 2020, the ESA/Euclid mission will map out a large part of the sky, with the primary goal of constraining the nature of Dark energy. As part of its calibration plan, Euclid will observe 40 square degrees to great depth, the so-called Euclid Deep Fields. These fields will be a treasure trove for finding rare, bright early galaxies. DAWN scientists play a leading role in the exploration of these deep fields, and will have early access to samples of early galaxies for follow up observations with JWST and ALMA. Read more about Euclid at http://sci.esa.int/euclid/.

Supporting extragalactic surveys:

Supporting Extragalactic surveysIn addition to Euclid, DAWN scientists are involved in a number of the largest existing extragalactic surveys, which will be important sources of targets for JWST and ALMA. These include the COSMOS survey, the Hubble Frontier Field survey, Buffalo, 3DHST, SMUVS, Ultravista and Splash. 

COSMOS: http://cosmos.astro.caltech.edu/
Hubble Frontier Field: http://www.stsci.edu/hst/campaigns/frontier-fields/HST-Survey
Buffalo: https://buffalo.ipac.caltech.edu/
3DHST: https://3dhst.research.yale.edu/Home.html
SMUVS: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/SMUVS/overview.html
Ultravista: http://ultravista.org/
Splash: http://splash-survey.org/

 

 

If you are interested in writing a project (this could be a first year project, a bachelor project or a master's thesis) under supervision of a DAWN employee please feel free to contact a DAWN'er

 

 

All publications by DAWN here

Recent DAWN Publications

Sun, Lei et al. , The Ultraviolet Luminosity Function at 0.6 < z < 1 from UVCANDELS, The Astrophysical Journal

Bosman, Sarah E. I. et al. , A mature quasar at cosmic dawn revealed by JWST rest-frame infrared spectroscopy, Nature Astronomy

Algera, Hiddo S. B. et al. , Accurate simultaneous constraints on the dust mass, temperature and emissivity index of a galaxy at redshift 7.31, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

 

Anisotropela with Peter Laursen:

DAWN PostDoc Peter Laursen is very passionate about outreach and generally participates in all kinds of activities; from talks to high school students about the fundamental cosmological questions like "What does the Universe expand into?" and "Is there more than one Universe?" (Danish), to podcasting and writing award-winning popsci articles. An example series of questions from an outreach event in May 2020 can be found here (in Danish).

Peter Laursen's different activities throughout the years can be found on the website Anisotropela.

Visit our Twitter or our Facebook

Talk about galaxies with Johan Fynbo from Carlsbergfondet on Vimeo.

Johan Fynbo, Professor at DAWN, talks about the foundations and history of the study of galaxies and cosmology and why we want to continue pushing the boundaries of astronomy on this video from one of our main contributors, Carlsbergfondet:

Science Slam w/ Peter Laursen & Thomas Greve at the Planetarium

Planetarium fejrer 30 år med Per Vers, Science Slam og bobler from Planetarium Copenhagen on Vimeo.

The Planetarium in Copenhagen is celebrating it's 30th anniversary, and an event where eight physics professors, postdocs and PhD will discuss which area of physics is actually the best will be held with participation of Peter Laursen and Thomas Greve of DAWN. Drop by and check it out. There will be researchers representing everything from new aerospace technology to galaxy formation (yay),  cosmoclimatology and exoplanetary studies.

The format of the event will be of a "Rapping Fight Night", a real Science Slam!

Check out the event website here! https://planetarium.dk/program/planetarium-fejrer-30-aar-med-per-vers-science-slam-og-bobler/

On the website, you can also see Peter telling us a bit about what's going to happen.

 

 

DAWNs primary source of funding is a center of excellence grant from the Danish National research foundation, which runs for up to 10 years, starting in the fall 2017. In addition to this, DAWN will support its members to obtain personal grants from Danish and international funding agencies.

DAWN scientists at the moment hold three such grants, the ERC Consolidator Project: Connecting the Extreme (PI:Toft), the Villum Young Investigator Project: “Gas to dust, dust to stars” (PI: Magdis) and the DFF project: “The first generations of Galaxies” (PI: Watson).

 


The Danish National Research Foundation funds frontline, curiosity-driven research of the highest quality in Denmark. Read more >>

 

VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN are philanthropic foundations and a part of THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS. Read more >>


The ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence. Read more >>

 

 

The Visitor Programme is an integral part of DAWN. Visitors contribute to DAWN science in a number of ways; they infuse ideas and stimulate activity, add their expertise to on-going projects, get inspired and develop projects.

DAWN's visitor programme offers support for collaborators to come to DAWN for short and long stays. 

Opportunities for visits

There is a wide range of opportunities, both regarding scope and duration of the visit. The main criterion is to optimize scientific return. We support short-duration visits of days to weeks as well as long-term visits up to 12 months. Visits of more than 2-3 weeks are strongly encouraged.  Our associates have a standing invitation to visit.

Categories for visits

Generally, visits fall into one of these categories:

  • Scientists of world-recognized caliber in one of the areas of interest to DAWN.
  • Visitors who can contribute to DAWN science-related activities.
  • Those who would like to collaborate on a specific scientific project.

Visits can take many forms. For example, a single scientist or a research team of co-authors may visit DAWN to contribute to a paper, an important application or a proposal.  Suggestions for mini-workshops are also welcome.

Prospective visitors are kindly requested to complete the Visitor Application Form. Before submitting the form, prior contact to a DAWN scientist is encouraged.

Support

Work space, computer access and administrative support are offered to all visitors. Request for financial support should be included on the Visitor Application Form. It is expected that most visits are at least co-funded.

Visitors are supported by the DAWN admin team, who will help with all of the administrative aspects of the visit, including housing.  Any specific or unusual computing needs must be communicated prior to arrival.

The prospective visitor's host will introduce the visitor to the scientific and non-scientific life at DAWN.

Helpful links for visitors

General information
Nearby accommodations
Copenhagen Airport
Public transportation
Visit Copenhagen.com
Visit Denmark.com
Copenhagen neighborhoods
Public transportation in Copenhagen

Local/Danish news in English
The Local
Copenhagen Post
Politiken

University of Copenhagen
Niels Bohr Institute 
Faculty of Science

Places of interest around Copenhagen
"DAWN Does Copenhagen"
Check out this Google map of different bars, restaurants, ice cream shops and attractions, so you'll always know what to do to enjoy your time in Copenhagen!

The restaurants are ordered by price level and if there is any event going on, the map will be updated to show relevant locations.

Historical sites in Copenhagen

 

 

For more information about DAWN, please contact the Coordinator or the Center Directors.

Sune Toft

Sune Toft, Center Director

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Niels Bohr Building
Jagtvej 128, 2. floor
01.2.I.078
2200 Copenhagen N.
Phone: 61 68 09 30
Email: sune@nbi.ku.dk

Thomas Greve

Thomas Greve, Co-Director

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
Elektrovej, Bygning 327, rum 017
2800 Kgs. Lyngby
Phone: 45 25 96 88
E-mail: tgreve@space.dtu.dk

Peter Laursen

Peter Laursen, Communications Consultant

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Niels Bohr Building
Jagtvej 128, 2. floor
2200 Copenhagen N.
Phone: 35 32 05 19
Email: pela@nbi.ku.dk

Helena Baunsgaard-Sørensen

Helena Baungaard-Sørensen, Section Secretary

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Niels Bohr Building
Jagtvej 128, 2. floor
01.2.I.036
2200 Copenhagen N.
Phone: 22 53 11 78
Email: helena.baungaard@nbi.ku.dk

 

Outreach activities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remote Q&A for high schoolers with Peter Laursen.
"Let's answer the big questions"!
Questions asked during the session, with video link (in Danish)

The full list of answered questions can be found here.

High school talk at Det Fri Gymnasium
Subject: Cosmology
- by Peter Laursen

High school talk at Gladsaxe Gymnasium
Subject: The Plank Mission
- by Hans Ulrik Nørgaard Nielsen

High school talk at Roskilde Katedralskole
Subject: The JWST Mission
- by Hans Ulrik Nørgaard Nielsen

Lecture for Folkeuniversitetet
Subject: Cosmic Dawn
- by Sune Toft

Presentation for Viborg Gymnasium
Subject: Hvorfor er det Mørkt om Natten? [Why is it Dark at Night?]
- by Peter Jakobsen

Presentation for Sukkertoppen Gymnasium
Subject Hvorfor er det Mørkt om Natten? [Why is it Dark at night?]
- by Peter Jakobsen

Talk at the Athena School for highly gifted children
Subject: Cosmology
- by Peter Laursen

Talk for high schools visiting DAWN
Subject: Galaxies
- by Peter Laursen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helena Baungaard-Sørensen
Phone: +45 22 53 11 78
Email: helena.baungaard@nbi.ku.dk

Researchers

Name Title Job responsibilities
Search in Name Search in Title Search in Job responsibilities
Allen, Natalie PhD Fellow Billede af Allen, Natalie
Andersen, Michael Ingemann Special Consultant Billede af Andersen, Michael Ingemann
Arya, Aayush PhD Fellow Billede af Arya, Aayush
Baungaard-Sørensen, Helena Section Secretary Billede af Baungaard-Sørensen, Helena
Bonaventura, Nina External Consultant Billede af Bonaventura, Nina
Brammer, Gabriel Associate Professor Billede af Brammer, Gabriel
Christensen, Lise Bech Associate Professor Billede af Christensen, Lise Bech
Clasen, Jacob Wang External Consultant Billede af Clasen, Jacob Wang
Fynbo, Johan Peter Uldall Professor Billede af Fynbo, Johan Peter Uldall
Gelli, Viola Postdoc Billede af Gelli, Viola
Gottumukkala, Rashmi PhD Fellow Billede af Gottumukkala, Rashmi
Gould, Katriona Mai Landau External Consultant Billede af Gould, Katriona Mai Landau
Heintz, Kasper Elm Assistant Professor Billede af Heintz, Kasper Elm
Holm, Simone Vejlgaard PhD Fellow Billede af Holm, Simone Vejlgaard
Hutter, Anne Katharina Postdoc Billede af Hutter, Anne Katharina
Jakobsen, Peter Affiliate Professor Billede af Jakobsen, Peter
Jermann, Iris Visiting PhD Student Billede af Jermann, Iris
Jin, Shuowen External Postdoc Billede af Jin, Shuowen
Kakiichi, Koki Assistant Professor Billede af Kakiichi, Koki
Klausen, Rikke Stougaard Student Billede af Klausen, Rikke Stougaard
Kokorev, Vasilii External Consultant Billede af Kokorev, Vasilii
Kreilgaard, Kimi Cardoso PhD Fellow Billede af Kreilgaard, Kimi Cardoso
Kumar, Gaurav Senthil Academic Staff Billede af Kumar, Gaurav Senthil
Laursen, Peter Academic Research Staff Billede af Laursen, Peter
Lemming, Mikkel Peter External Consultant Billede af Lemming, Mikkel Peter
Li, Zihao PhD Fellow Billede af Li, Zihao
Liu, Lijie Postdoc Billede af Liu, Lijie
Lu, Ting-Yi Research Assistant Billede af Lu, Ting-Yi
Ma, Guozhen PhD Fellow Billede af Ma, Guozhen
Magdis, Georgios Affiliate Associate Professor Billede af Magdis, Georgios
Malesani, Daniele Bjørn Academic Staff Billede af Malesani, Daniele Bjørn
Mason, Charlotte Associate Professor Billede af Mason, Charlotte
Matharu, Jasleen Kaur Postdoc Billede af Matharu, Jasleen Kaur
Mc Partland, Conor John Ryan Postdoc Billede af Mc Partland, Conor John Ryan
Milvang-Jensen, Bo External Consultant Billede af Milvang-Jensen, Bo
Nielsen, Rasmus Damgaard PhD Fellow Billede af Nielsen, Rasmus Damgaard
Nikopoulos, Georgios Panagiotis PhD Fellow Billede af Nikopoulos, Georgios Panagiotis
Nordström, Birgitta Associate Professor Emerita Billede af Nordström, Birgitta
Oesch, Pascal Associate Professor Billede af Oesch, Pascal
Pollock, Clara Lucie PhD Student Billede af Pollock, Clara Lucie
Prieto Lyon, Gonzalo Juan Research Assistant Billede af Prieto Lyon, Gonzalo Juan
Reynolds, Tom Research Assistant Billede af Reynolds, Tom
Rizzo, Francesca External Consultant Billede af Rizzo, Francesca
Rusakov, Vadim External Consultant Billede af Rusakov, Vadim
Shuntov, Marko Postdoc Billede af Shuntov, Marko
Strait, Victoria Bellinger Postdoc Billede af Strait, Victoria Bellinger
Sørensen, Anton Norup Academic Research Staff Billede af Sørensen, Anton Norup
Toft, Sune Professor Billede af Toft, Sune
Valeckas, Kostas IT Officer Billede af Valeckas, Kostas
Valentino, Francesco Maria External Consultant Billede af Valentino, Francesco Maria
Viuho, Joonas Kari Markku PhD Fellow Billede af Viuho, Joonas Kari Markku
Watson, Darach Jafar Professor Billede af Watson, Darach Jafar
Witstok, Joris Postdoc Billede af Witstok, Joris