Witnessing Cosmic Dawn: new insights into early galaxies and AGNs from JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revolutionized our view of the early universe, with spectroscopic confirmation of several tens of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts greater than 10—when the Universe was only 500 million years old. These discoveries challenge our current models of galaxy formation and evolution at Cosmic Dawn: galaxies appear unexpectedly luminous, and their chemical abundances defy predictions from standard chemical evolution models. In this talk, I will present key findings from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), exploring the properties of early stellar populations, AGNs, and the interstellar medium—including gas and dust—during the Reionization Epoch.