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 and Rogier A. Windhorst
Additional contact information
Guido Roberts-Borsani: University of California
Tommaso Treu: University of California
Wenlei Chen: University of Minnesota
Takahiro Morishita: Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Caltech
Eros Vanzella: INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
Adi Zitrin: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Pietro Bergamini: INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
Marco Castellano: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Adriano Fontana: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Karl Glazebrook: Swinburne University of Technology
Claudio Grillo: Università degli Studi di Milano
Patrick L. Kelly: University of Minnesota
Emiliano Merlin: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Themiya Nanayakkara: Swinburne University of Technology
Diego Paris: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Piero Rosati: INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
Lilan Yang: The University of Tokyo
Ana Acebron: Università degli Studi di Milano
Andrea Bonchi: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Kit Boyett: University of Melbourne
Maruša Bradač: University of Ljubljana, Department of Mathematics and Physics
Gabriel Brammer: Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Tom Broadhurst: University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
Antonello Calabró: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Jose M. Diego: Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC)
Alan Dressler: The Observatories, The Carnegie Institution for Science
Lukas J. Furtak: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Alexei V. Filippenko: University of California
Alaina Henry: Space Telescope Science Institute
Anton M. Koekemoer: Space Telescope Science Institute
Nicha Leethochawalit: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT)
Matthew A. Malkan: University of California
Charlotte Mason: Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Amata Mercurio: Università degli Studi di Salerno
Benjamin Metha: University of California
Laura Pentericci: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Justin Pierel: Space Telescope Science Institute
Steven Rieck: University of Minnesota
Namrata Roy: Johns Hopkins University
Paola Santini: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
Victoria Strait: Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Robert Strausbaugh: University of Minnesota
Michele Trenti: University of Melbourne
Benedetta Vulcani: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
Lifan Wang: Texas A&M University, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Xin Wang: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)
Rogier A. Windhorst: Arizona State University

Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7965, 480-483

Abstract: 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 (MUV = −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.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w

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