A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

Ivo Labbé (), Pieter Dokkum, Erica Nelson, Rachel Bezanson, Katherine A. Suess, Joel Leja, Gabriel Brammer, Katherine Whitaker, Elijah Mathews, Mauro Stefanon and Bingjie Wang
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Ivo Labbé: Swinburne University of Technology
Pieter Dokkum: Yale University
Erica Nelson: University of Colorado
Rachel Bezanson: University of Pittsburgh
Katherine A. Suess: University of California, Santa Cruz
Joel Leja: The Pennsylvania State University
Gabriel Brammer: University of Copenhagen
Katherine Whitaker: University of Copenhagen
Elijah Mathews: The Pennsylvania State University
Mauro Stefanon: University of Valencia Burjassot
Bingjie Wang: The Pennsylvania State University

Nature, 2023, vol. 616, issue 7956, 266-269

Abstract: Abstract Galaxies with stellar masses as high as roughly 1011 solar masses have been identified1–3 out to redshifts z of roughly 6, around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. It has been difficult to find massive galaxies at even earlier times, as the Balmer break region, which is needed for accurate mass estimates, is redshifted to wavelengths beyond 2.5 μm. Here we make use of the 1–5 μm coverage of the James Webb Space Telescope early release observations to search for intrinsically red galaxies in the first roughly 750 million years of cosmic history. In the survey area, we find six candidate massive galaxies (stellar mass more than 1010 solar masses) at 7.4 ≤ z ≤ 9.1, 500–700 Myr after the Big Bang, including one galaxy with a possible stellar mass of roughly 1011 solar masses. If verified with spectroscopy, the stellar mass density in massive galaxies would be much higher than anticipated from previous studies on the basis of rest-frame ultraviolet-selected samples.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05786-2

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