The JWST Hubble Sequence: The Rest-Frame Optical Evolution of Galaxy Structure at $1.5 < z < 8$

Understand

We present results on the morphological and structural evolution of a total of 4265 galaxies observed with JWST at $1.5 < z < 8$ in the JWST CEERS observations that overlap with the CANDELS EGS field.

• This is the biggest visually classified sample observed with JWST yet, $\sim20$ times larger than previous studies, and allows us to examine in detail how galaxy structure has changed over this critical epoch.
• All sources were classified by six individual classifiers using a simple classification scheme aimed to produce disk/spheroid/peculiar classifications, whereby we determine how the relative number of these morphologies evolves since the Universe's first billion years.
• Additionally, we explore structural and quantitative morphology measurements using \textsc{Morfometryka}, and show that galaxies at $z > 3$ are not dominated by irregular and peculiar structures, either visually or quantitatively, as previously thought.