A massive interacting galaxy 510 million years after the Big Bang

K Boyett; M Trenti; N Leethochawalit; A Calabró; B Metha; G Roberts-Borsani; N Dalmasso; L Yang; P Santini; T Treu; T Jones; A Henry; CA Mason; T Morishita; T Nanayakkara; N Roy; X Wang; A Fontana; E Merlin; M Castellano; D Paris; M Bradač; M Malkan; D Marchesini; S Mascia; K Glazebrook; L Pentericci; E Vanzella; B Vulcani

Journal article

A massive interacting galaxy 510 million years after the Big Bang

K Boyett, M Trenti, N Leethochawalit, A Calabró, B Metha, G Roberts-Borsani, N Dalmasso, L Yang, P Santini, T Treu, T Jones, A Henry, CA Mason, T Morishita, T Nanayakkara, N Roy, X Wang, A Fontana, E Merlin, M Castellano Show all

Nature Astronomy | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02218-7

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Abstract

James Webb Space Telescope observations have spectroscopically confirmed the existence of galaxies as early as 300 Myr after the Big Bang and with a higher number density than what was expected based on galaxy formation models and Hubble Space Telescope observations. Yet, most sources confirmed spectroscopically so far in the first 500 Myr have rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosities below the characteristic luminosity (MUV*), limiting the signal-to-noise ratio for investigating substructure. Here we present a high-resolution spectroscopic and spatially resolved study of a bright galaxy (MUV = −21.66 ± 0.03, ~2MUV*) at a redshift z = 9.3127 ± 0.0002 (510 Myr after the Big Bang) with an esti..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Michele Trenti Author

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ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR ALL SKY ASTROPHYSICS IN 3D (ASTRO 3D)

Grants

Awarded by European Space Agency

Funding Acknowledgements

This work is based on observations made with JWST, which is run jointly by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with programmes JWST-ERS-1324 and JWST-DDT-2756. We acknowledge financial support from NASA (Grant No. JWST-ERS-1324). K.B., M.T., B.M. and N.D. acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. K.G. and T.N. acknowledge support from Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060. B.M. acknowledges support from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarships and the Jean E Laby Foundation. We acknowledge financial support through grants PRIN-MIUR 2017WSCC32 and 2020SKSTHZ. M.B. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (Grant No. FIRSTLIGHT) and from the Slovenian national research agency (Grant Nos. N1-0238 and P1-0188). C.A.M. acknowledges support from Villum Fonden (Grant No. 37459) and the Carlsberg Foundation (Grant No. CF22-1322). The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (Grant No. DNRF140). We acknowledge support from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF; Large Grant 2022 for Extragalactic Surveys with JWST, PI Pentericci). E.V. acknowledges support from the INAF (GO Grant 2022 for The revolution is around the corner: JWST will probe globular cluster precursors and Population III stellar clusters at cosmic dawn). M.C. acknowledges support from INAF (a mini grant for Reionization and fundamental cosmology with high-redshift galaxies). P.S. acknowledges an INAF mini grant 2022 for The evolution of passive galaxies through cosmic time. D.M. acknowledges financial support from programme HST-GO-17231, provided through a grant from STScI under NASA contract NAS5-26555.