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  Earliest galaxies

  VENUS probes the onset of galaxy formation at z ≳ 14 by identifying and spectroscopically confirming gravitationally lensed, intrinsically ultra-faint galaxies, constraining the UV luminosity function down to M_UV ≃ −12 and the role of galaxies in cosmic reionization.

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  Earliest star clusters

  Using strong lensing and high-resolution multi-band NIRCam imaging, VENUS spatially resolves early galaxies down to star-cluster scales (∼1-10 pc), revealing when, where, and how the first stellar populations and proto–globular clusters formed.

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  Earliest Black Holes

  VENUS conducts the first systematic census of low-mass black holes in the early universe, measuring black hole masses down to ∼10⁵ M_⊙ in lensed galaxies and testing the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies at z≃4–10.

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  Earliest stars and supernovae

  By exploiting wide, multi-epoch lensing fields, VENUS opens a new time-domain window on the early universe, enabling the discovery of individual lensed stars and supernovae at z ≳ 5, including rare explosions from massive, low-metallicity stars that directly constrain the high-redshift initial mass function.

Support for the VENUS program is provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.