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The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST

Author

Listed:
  • Guido Roberts-Borsani

    (University of California)

  • Tommaso Treu

    (University of California)

  • Wenlei Chen

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Takahiro Morishita

    (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Caltech)

  • Eros Vanzella

    (INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna)

  • Adi Zitrin

    (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Pietro Bergamini

    (INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
    Università degli Studi di Milano)

  • Marco Castellano

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Adriano Fontana

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Karl Glazebrook

    (Swinburne University of Technology)

  • Claudio Grillo

    (Università degli Studi di Milano
    INAF - IASF Milano)

  • Patrick L. Kelly

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Emiliano Merlin

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Themiya Nanayakkara

    (Swinburne University of Technology)

  • Diego Paris

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Piero Rosati

    (INAF - OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
    Università degli Studi di Ferrara)

  • Lilan Yang

    (The University of Tokyo)

  • Ana Acebron

    (Università degli Studi di Milano
    INAF - IASF Milano)

  • Andrea Bonchi

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone
    ASI-Space Science Data Center)

  • Kit Boyett

    (University of Melbourne
    ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D))

  • Maruša Bradač

    (University of Ljubljana, Department of Mathematics and Physics
    University of California)

  • Gabriel Brammer

    (Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
    University of Copenhagen)

  • Tom Broadhurst

    (University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
    Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)
    IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science)

  • Antonello Calabró

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Jose M. Diego

    (Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC))

  • Alan Dressler

    (The Observatories, The Carnegie Institution for Science)

  • Lukas J. Furtak

    (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Alexei V. Filippenko

    (University of California)

  • Alaina Henry

    (Space Telescope Science Institute
    Johns Hopkins University)

  • Anton M. Koekemoer

    (Space Telescope Science Institute)

  • Nicha Leethochawalit

    (National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT))

  • Matthew A. Malkan

    (University of California)

  • Charlotte Mason

    (Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
    University of Copenhagen)

  • Amata Mercurio

    (Università degli Studi di Salerno
    INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte)

  • Benjamin Metha

    (University of California
    University of Melbourne
    ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D))

  • Laura Pentericci

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Justin Pierel

    (Space Telescope Science Institute)

  • Steven Rieck

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Namrata Roy

    (Johns Hopkins University)

  • Paola Santini

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone)

  • Victoria Strait

    (Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
    University of Copenhagen)

  • Robert Strausbaugh

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Michele Trenti

    (University of Melbourne
    ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D))

  • Benedetta Vulcani

    (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)

  • Lifan Wang

    (Texas A&M University, Department of Physics and Astronomy)

  • Xin Wang

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Beijing Normal University)

  • Rogier A. Windhorst

    (Arizona State University)

Abstract

In the first billion years after the Big Bang, sources of ultraviolet (UV) photons are believed to have ionized intergalactic hydrogen, rendering the Universe transparent to UV radiation. Galaxies brighter than the characteristic luminosity L* (refs. 1,2) do not provide enough ionizing photons to drive this cosmic reionization. Fainter galaxies are thought to dominate the photon budget; however, they are surrounded by neutral gas that prevents the escape of the Lyman-α photons, which has been the dominant way to identify them so far. JD1 was previously identified as a triply-imaged galaxy with a magnification factor of 13 provided by the foreground cluster Abell 2744 (ref. 3), and a photometric redshift of z ≈ 10. Here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of this very low luminosity (≈0.05 L*) galaxy at z = 9.79, observed 480 Myr after the Big Bang, by means of the identification of the Lyman break and redward continuum, as well as multiple ≳4σ emission lines, with the Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instruments. The combination of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and gravitational lensing shows that this ultra-faint galaxy (MUV = −17.35)—with a luminosity typical of the sources responsible for cosmic reionization—has a compact (≈150 pc) and complex morphology, low stellar mass (107.19 M⊙) and subsolar (≈0.6 Z⊙) gas-phase metallicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Guido Roberts-Borsani & Tommaso Treu & Wenlei Chen & Takahiro Morishita & Eros Vanzella & Adi Zitrin & Pietro Bergamini & Marco Castellano & Adriano Fontana & Karl Glazebrook & Claudio Grillo & Patric, 2023. "The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST," Nature, Nature, vol. 618(7965), pages 480-483, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:618:y:2023:i:7965:d:10.1038_s41586-023-05994-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05994-w
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