TY - JOUR
T1 - UNCOVER
T2 - Illuminating the Early Universe—JWST/NIRSpec Confirmation of z > 12 Galaxies
AU - Wang, Bingjie
AU - Fujimoto, Seiji
AU - Labbé, Ivo
AU - Furtak, Lukas J.
AU - Miller, Tim B.
AU - Setton, David J.
AU - Zitrin, Adi
AU - Atek, Hakim
AU - Bezanson, Rachel
AU - Brammer, Gabriel
AU - Leja, Joel
AU - Oesch, Pascal A.
AU - Price, Sedona H.
AU - Chemerynska, Iryna
AU - Cutler, Sam E.
AU - Dayal, Pratika
AU - van Dokkum, Pieter
AU - Goulding, Andy D.
AU - Greene, Jenny E.
AU - Fudamoto, Y.
AU - Khullar, Gourav
AU - Kokorev, Vasily
AU - Marchesini, Danilo
AU - Pan, Richard
AU - Weaver, John R.
AU - Whitaker, Katherine E.
AU - Williams, Christina C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/11/1
Y1 - 2023/11/1
N2 - Observations of high-redshift galaxies provide a critical direct test to the theories of early galaxy formation, yet to date, only three have been spectroscopically confirmed at z > 12. Due to strong gravitational lensing over a wide area, the galaxy cluster field A2744 is ideal for searching for the earliest galaxies. Here we present JWST/NIRSpec observations of two galaxies: a robust detection at z spec = 12.393 − 0.001 + 0.004 , and a plausible candidate at z spec = 13.079 − 0.001 + 0.013 . The galaxies are discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging and their distances are inferred with JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, all from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey. Detailed stellar population modeling using JWST NIRCam and NIRSpec data corroborates the primeval characteristics of these galaxies: low mass (∼108 M ⊙), young, rapidly assembling, metal-poor, and star-forming. Interestingly, both galaxies are spatially resolved, having lensing-corrected rest-UV effective radii on the order of 300-400 pc, which are notably larger than other spectroscopically confirmed systems at similar redshifts. The observed dynamic range of z ≳ 10 sizes spans over 1 order of magnitude, implying a significant scatter in the size-mass relation at early times. Deep into the epoch of reionization, these discoveries elucidate the emergence of the first galaxies.
AB - Observations of high-redshift galaxies provide a critical direct test to the theories of early galaxy formation, yet to date, only three have been spectroscopically confirmed at z > 12. Due to strong gravitational lensing over a wide area, the galaxy cluster field A2744 is ideal for searching for the earliest galaxies. Here we present JWST/NIRSpec observations of two galaxies: a robust detection at z spec = 12.393 − 0.001 + 0.004 , and a plausible candidate at z spec = 13.079 − 0.001 + 0.013 . The galaxies are discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging and their distances are inferred with JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, all from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey. Detailed stellar population modeling using JWST NIRCam and NIRSpec data corroborates the primeval characteristics of these galaxies: low mass (∼108 M ⊙), young, rapidly assembling, metal-poor, and star-forming. Interestingly, both galaxies are spatially resolved, having lensing-corrected rest-UV effective radii on the order of 300-400 pc, which are notably larger than other spectroscopically confirmed systems at similar redshifts. The observed dynamic range of z ≳ 10 sizes spans over 1 order of magnitude, implying a significant scatter in the size-mass relation at early times. Deep into the epoch of reionization, these discoveries elucidate the emergence of the first galaxies.
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U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/acfe07
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/acfe07
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85178260382
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 957
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2
M1 - L34
ER -