Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early Universe.

Autor: Arrabal Haro P; NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, USA. parrabalh@gmail.com., Dickinson M; NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, USA., Finkelstein SL; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Kartaltepe JS; Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA., Donnan CT; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., Burgarella D; Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM Marseille, Marseille, France., Carnall AC; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., Cullen F; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., Dunlop JS; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., Fernández V; Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinar en Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile., Fujimoto S; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen, Denmark.; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark., Jung I; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA., Krips M; IRAM, Domaine Universitaire, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France., Larson RL; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.; Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA., Papovich C; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA., Pérez-González PG; Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain., Amorín RO; Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinar en Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile.; Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile., Bagley MB; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Buat V; Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM Marseille, Marseille, France., Casey CM; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Chworowsky K; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Cohen SH; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA., Ferguson HC; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA., Giavalisco M; University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA., Huertas-Company M; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain.; Universidad de la Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.; Université Paris-Cité, LERMA - Observatoire de Paris, PSL, Paris, France., Hutchison TA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA., Kocevski DD; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA., Koekemoer AM; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA., Lucas RA; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA., McLeod DJ; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., McLure RJ; Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK., Pirzkal N; Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA., Seillé LM; Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM Marseille, Marseille, France., Trump JR; Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA., Weiner BJ; MMT/Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA., Wilkins SM; Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.; Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy, University of Malta, Msida, Malta., Zavala JA; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2023 Oct; Vol. 622 (7984), pp. 707-711. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 14.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06521-7
Abstrakt: During the first 500 million years of cosmic history, the first stars and galaxies formed, seeding the Universe with heavy elements and eventually reionizing the intergalactic medium 1-3 . Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered a surprisingly high abundance of candidates for early star-forming galaxies, with distances (redshifts, z), estimated from multiband photometry, as large as z ≈ 16, far beyond pre-JWST limits 4-9 . Although such photometric redshifts are generally robust, they can suffer from degeneracies and occasionally catastrophic errors. Spectroscopic measurements are required to validate these sources and to reliably quantify physical properties that can constrain galaxy formation models and cosmology 10 . Here we present JWST spectroscopy that confirms redshifts for two very luminous galaxies with z > 11, and also demonstrates that another candidate with suggested z ≈ 16 instead has z = 4.9, with an unusual combination of nebular line emission and dust reddening that mimics the colours expected for much more distant objects. These results reinforce evidence for the early, rapid formation of remarkably luminous galaxies while also highlighting the necessity of spectroscopic verification. The large abundance of bright, early galaxies may indicate shortcomings in current galaxy formation models or deviations from physical properties (such as the stellar initial mass function) that are generally believed to hold at later times.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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