Abstract

We are witnessing an exciting revolution in our understanding of the first galaxies. JWST observations have already revealed galaxies in the first few hundred million years of the Universe and their detailed characterization in terms of chemical enrichment and stellar populations, revealing galaxies as metal poor as 1% of the solar value, and even potential traces of the first (Pop III ) stars at z ≈ 6.5 – 10.5. In addition to the stunning discoveries made recently by JWST , there have also been recent probes of the dust content of galaxies in the first billion years of the Universe with ALMA . This is a key and rapid transition phase for the evolution of dust, as galaxy evolutionary timescales become comparable with the formation timescales of dust. In this talk, I will attempt to provide some indications on the diversity of physical properties of the first galaxies expected by theoretical models, and on the current (limited) understanding of dust enrichment at very early cosmic epochs.