The onset of star formation 250 million years after the Big Bang

Takuya Hashimoto (), Nicolas Laporte, Ken Mawatari, Richard S. Ellis, Akio K. Inoue, Erik Zackrisson, Guido Roberts-Borsani, Wei Zheng, Yoichi Tamura, Franz E. Bauer, Thomas Fletcher, Yuichi Harikane, Bunyo Hatsukade, Natsuki H. Hayatsu, Yuichi Matsuda, Hiroshi Matsuo, Takashi Okamoto, Masami Ouchi, Roser Pelló, Claes-Erik Rydberg, Ikkoh Shimizu, Yoshiaki Taniguchi, Hideki Umehata and Naoki Yoshida
Additional contact information
Takuya Hashimoto: Faculty of Design Technology, Osaka Sangyo University
Nicolas Laporte: University College London
Ken Mawatari: Faculty of Design Technology, Osaka Sangyo University
Richard S. Ellis: University College London
Akio K. Inoue: Faculty of Design Technology, Osaka Sangyo University
Erik Zackrisson: Uppsala University
Guido Roberts-Borsani: University College London
Wei Zheng: Johns Hopkins University
Yoichi Tamura: Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
Franz E. Bauer: Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Thomas Fletcher: University College London
Yuichi Harikane: The University of Tokyo
Bunyo Hatsukade: The University of Tokyo
Natsuki H. Hayatsu: Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
Yuichi Matsuda: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Hiroshi Matsuo: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Takashi Okamoto: Graduates School of Science, Hokakido University
Masami Ouchi: The University of Tokyo
Roser Pelló: IRAP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, CNES
Claes-Erik Rydberg: Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik
Ikkoh Shimizu: Osaka University
Yoshiaki Taniguchi: The Open University of Japan
Hideki Umehata: The University of Tokyo
Naoki Yoshida: Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo

Nature, 2018, vol. 557, issue 7705, 392-395

Abstract: Abstract A fundamental quest of modern astronomy is to locate the earliest galaxies and study how they influenced the intergalactic medium a few hundred million years after the Big Bang1–3. The abundance of star-forming galaxies is known to decline4,5 from redshifts of about 6 to 10, but a key question is the extent of star formation at even earlier times, corresponding to the period when the first galaxies might have emerged. Here we report spectroscopic observations of MACS1149-JD16, a gravitationally lensed galaxy observed when the Universe was less than four per cent of its present age. We detect an emission line of doubly ionized oxygen at a redshift of 9.1096 ± 0.0006, with an uncertainty of one standard deviation. This precisely determined redshift indicates that the red rest-frame optical colour arises from a dominant stellar component that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of about 15. Our results indicate that it may be possible to detect such early episodes of star formation in similar galaxies with future telescopes.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0117-z

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