The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST

Guido Roberts-Borsani; Tommaso Treu; Wenlei Chen; Takahiro Morishita; Eros Vanzella; Adi Zitrin; Pietro Bergamini; Marco Castellano; Adriano Fontana; Karl Glazebrook; Claudio Grillo; Patrick L. Kelly; Emiliano Merlin; Themiya Nanayakkara; Diego Paris; Piero Rosati; Lilan Yang; Ana Acebron; Andrea Bonchi; Kit Boyett; Maruša Bradač; Gabriel Brammer; Tom Broadhurst; Antonello Calabró; Jose M. Diego; Alan Dressler; Lukas J. Furtak; Alexei V. Filippenko; Alaina Henry; Anton M. Koekemoer; Nicha Leethochawalit; Matthew A. Malkan; Charlotte Mason; Amata Mercurio; Benjamin Metha; Laura Pentericci; Justin Pierel; Steven Rieck; Namrata Roy; Paola Santini; Victoria Strait; Robert Strausbaugh; Michele Trenti; Benedetta Vulcani; Lifan Wang; Xin Wang; Rogier A. Windhorst

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w

The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST

Guido Roberts-Borsani, Tommaso Treu, Wenlei Chen, Takahiro Morishita, Eros Vanzella, Adi Zitrin, Pietro Bergamini, Marco Castellano, Adriano Fontana, Karl Glazebrook, Claudio Grillo, Patrick L. Kelly, Emiliano Merlin, Themiya Nanayakkara, Diego Paris, Piero Rosati, Lilan Yang, Ana Acebron, Andrea Bonchi, Kit BoyettMaruša Bradač, Gabriel Brammer, Tom Broadhurst, Antonello Calabró, Jose M. Diego, Alan Dressler, Lukas J. Furtak, Alexei V. Filippenko, Alaina Henry, Anton M. Koekemoer, Nicha Leethochawalit, Matthew A. Malkan, Charlotte Mason, Amata Mercurio, Benjamin Metha, Laura Pentericci, Justin Pierel, Steven Rieck, Namrata Roy, Paola Santini, Victoria Strait, Robert Strausbaugh, Michele Trenti, Benedetta Vulcani, Lifan Wang, Xin Wang, Rogier A. Windhorst

Physics and Astronomy (Twin Cities)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the first billion years after the Big Bang, sources of ultraviolet (UV) photons are believed to have ionized intergalactic hydrogen, rendering the Universe transparent to UV radiation. Galaxies brighter than the characteristic luminosity L* (refs. ^1,2) do not provide enough ionizing photons to drive this cosmic reionization. Fainter galaxies are thought to dominate the photon budget; however, they are surrounded by neutral gas that prevents the escape of the Lyman-α photons, which has been the dominant way to identify them so far. JD1 was previously identified as a triply-imaged galaxy with a magnification factor of 13 provided by the foreground cluster Abell 2744 (ref. ³), and a photometric redshift of z ≈ 10. Here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of this very low luminosity (≈0.05 L*) galaxy at z = 9.79, observed 480 Myr after the Big Bang, by means of the identification of the Lyman break and redward continuum, as well as multiple ≳4σ emission lines, with the Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instruments. The combination of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and gravitational lensing shows that this ultra-faint galaxy (M _UV = −17.35)—with a luminosity typical of the sources responsible for cosmic reionization—has a compact (≈150 pc) and complex morphology, low stellar mass (10^7.19 M _⊙) and subsolar (≈0.6 Z _⊙) gas-phase metallicity.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	480-483
Number of pages	4
Journal	Nature
Volume	618
Issue number	7965
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w
State	Published - Jun 15 2023

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© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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Roberts-Borsani, G., Treu, T., Chen, W., Morishita, T., Vanzella, E., Zitrin, A., Bergamini, P., Castellano, M., Fontana, A., Glazebrook, K., Grillo, C., Kelly, P. L., Merlin, E., Nanayakkara, T., Paris, D., Rosati, P., Yang, L., Acebron, A., Bonchi, A., ... Windhorst, R. A. (2023). The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST. Nature, 618(7965), 480-483. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w

Roberts-Borsani, G, Treu, T, Chen, W, Morishita, T, Vanzella, E, Zitrin, A, Bergamini, P, Castellano, M, Fontana, A, Glazebrook, K, Grillo, C, Kelly, PL, Merlin, E, Nanayakkara, T, Paris, D, Rosati, P, Yang, L, Acebron, A, Bonchi, A, Boyett, K, Bradač, M, Brammer, G, Broadhurst, T, Calabró, A, Diego, JM, Dressler, A, Furtak, LJ, Filippenko, AV, Henry, A, Koekemoer, AM, Leethochawalit, N, Malkan, MA, Mason, C, Mercurio, A, Metha, B, Pentericci, L, Pierel, J, Rieck, S, Roy, N, Santini, P, Strait, V, Strausbaugh, R, Trenti, M, Vulcani, B, Wang, L, Wang, X & Windhorst, RA 2023, 'The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST', Nature, vol. 618, no. 7965, pp. 480-483. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w

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title = "The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST",

abstract = "In the first billion years after the Big Bang, sources of ultraviolet (UV) photons are believed to have ionized intergalactic hydrogen, rendering the Universe transparent to UV radiation. Galaxies brighter than the characteristic luminosity L* (refs. 1,2) do not provide enough ionizing photons to drive this cosmic reionization. Fainter galaxies are thought to dominate the photon budget; however, they are surrounded by neutral gas that prevents the escape of the Lyman-α photons, which has been the dominant way to identify them so far. JD1 was previously identified as a triply-imaged galaxy with a magnification factor of 13 provided by the foreground cluster Abell 2744 (ref. 3), and a photometric redshift of z ≈ 10. Here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of this very low luminosity (≈0.05 L*) galaxy at z = 9.79, observed 480 Myr after the Big Bang, by means of the identification of the Lyman break and redward continuum, as well as multiple ≳4σ emission lines, with the Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instruments. The combination of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and gravitational lensing shows that this ultra-faint galaxy (M UV = −17.35)—with a luminosity typical of the sources responsible for cosmic reionization—has a compact (≈150 pc) and complex morphology, low stellar mass (107.19 M ⊙) and subsolar (≈0.6 Z ⊙) gas-phase metallicity.",

author = "Guido Roberts-Borsani and Tommaso Treu and Wenlei Chen and Takahiro Morishita and Eros Vanzella and Adi Zitrin and Pietro Bergamini and Marco Castellano and Adriano Fontana and Karl Glazebrook and Claudio Grillo and Kelly, {Patrick L.} and Emiliano Merlin and Themiya Nanayakkara and Diego Paris and Piero Rosati and Lilan Yang and Ana Acebron and Andrea Bonchi and Kit Boyett and Maru{\v s}a Brada{\v c} and Gabriel Brammer and Tom Broadhurst and Antonello Calabr{\'o} and Diego, {Jose M.} and Alan Dressler and Furtak, {Lukas J.} and Filippenko, {Alexei V.} and Alaina Henry and Koekemoer, {Anton M.} and Nicha Leethochawalit and Malkan, {Matthew A.} and Charlotte Mason and Amata Mercurio and Benjamin Metha and Laura Pentericci and Justin Pierel and Steven Rieck and Namrata Roy and Paola Santini and Victoria Strait and Robert Strausbaugh and Michele Trenti and Benedetta Vulcani and Lifan Wang and Xin Wang and Windhorst, {Rogier A.}",

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T1 - The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST

AU - Roberts-Borsani, Guido

AU - Treu, Tommaso

AU - Chen, Wenlei

AU - Morishita, Takahiro

AU - Vanzella, Eros

AU - Zitrin, Adi

AU - Bergamini, Pietro

AU - Castellano, Marco

AU - Fontana, Adriano

AU - Glazebrook, Karl

AU - Grillo, Claudio

AU - Kelly, Patrick L.

AU - Merlin, Emiliano

AU - Nanayakkara, Themiya

AU - Paris, Diego

AU - Rosati, Piero

AU - Yang, Lilan

AU - Acebron, Ana

AU - Bonchi, Andrea

AU - Boyett, Kit

AU - Bradač, Maruša

AU - Brammer, Gabriel

AU - Broadhurst, Tom

AU - Calabró, Antonello

AU - Diego, Jose M.

AU - Dressler, Alan

AU - Furtak, Lukas J.

AU - Filippenko, Alexei V.

AU - Henry, Alaina

AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.

AU - Leethochawalit, Nicha

AU - Malkan, Matthew A.

AU - Mason, Charlotte

AU - Mercurio, Amata

AU - Metha, Benjamin

AU - Pentericci, Laura

AU - Pierel, Justin

AU - Rieck, Steven

AU - Roy, Namrata

AU - Santini, Paola

AU - Strait, Victoria

AU - Strausbaugh, Robert

AU - Trenti, Michele

AU - Vulcani, Benedetta

AU - Wang, Lifan

AU - Wang, Xin

AU - Windhorst, Rogier A.

PY - 2023/6/15

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AB - In the first billion years after the Big Bang, sources of ultraviolet (UV) photons are believed to have ionized intergalactic hydrogen, rendering the Universe transparent to UV radiation. Galaxies brighter than the characteristic luminosity L* (refs. 1,2) do not provide enough ionizing photons to drive this cosmic reionization. Fainter galaxies are thought to dominate the photon budget; however, they are surrounded by neutral gas that prevents the escape of the Lyman-α photons, which has been the dominant way to identify them so far. JD1 was previously identified as a triply-imaged galaxy with a magnification factor of 13 provided by the foreground cluster Abell 2744 (ref. 3), and a photometric redshift of z ≈ 10. Here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of this very low luminosity (≈0.05 L*) galaxy at z = 9.79, observed 480 Myr after the Big Bang, by means of the identification of the Lyman break and redward continuum, as well as multiple ≳4σ emission lines, with the Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instruments. The combination of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and gravitational lensing shows that this ultra-faint galaxy (M UV = −17.35)—with a luminosity typical of the sources responsible for cosmic reionization—has a compact (≈150 pc) and complex morphology, low stellar mass (107.19 M ⊙) and subsolar (≈0.6 Z ⊙) gas-phase metallicity.

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The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST

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