JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy of the triply lensed z = 10.17 galaxy MACS0647–JD

Hsiao, Yu-Yang Tiger (author), Abdurro'uf (author), Coe, Dan (author), Larson, Rebecca L. (author), Jung, Intae (author), Bradač, Maruša (author)

We present JWST/NIRSpec prism spectroscopy of MACS0647−JD, a triply lensed z ∼ 11 candidate discovered in Hubble Space Telescope imaging and spatially resolved by JWST imaging into two components, A and B. Spectroscopy of component A yields a spectroscopic redshift z = 10.17 based on seven detected emission lines: C III] λλ1907, 1909, [O II] λ3727, [Ne III] λ3869, [Ne III] λ3968, Hδ λ4101, Hγ λ4340, and [O III] λ4363. These are the second-most distant detections of these emission lines to date, in a galaxy observed just 460 million years after the Big Bang. Based on observed and extrapolated line flux ratios we derive a gas-phase metallicity 12 + log (O/H) ∼ 7.5–8.0, or Z ∼ (0.06–0.2) Ze, ionization parameter log(U) = −1.9 ± 0.2, and an ionizing photon production efficiency log 25.2 ± 0.2 erg-1 Hz. The spectrum has a softened Lyα break, evidence for a strong Lyα damping wing. The Lyα damping wing also suppresses the F150W photometry, explaining the slightly overestimated photometric redshift z = 10.6 ± 0.3. MACS0647−JD has a stellar mass log(M/Me) = 8.1 ± 0.3, including ∼6 × 10 7 Me in component A, most of which formed recently (within ∼20 Myr) with a star formation rate ∼ 2 ± 1 Me yr−1 , all within an effective radius 70 ± 24 pc. Spectroscopy of a fainter companion galaxy C separated by a distance of ∼ 3 kpc reveals a Lyman break consistent with z ∼ 10.17. MACS0647−JD is likely the most distant galaxy merger known.

• Language: English
• Keywords: galaxies, high-redshift galaxies, early universe, strong gravitational lensing, galaxy spectroscopy, reionization
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 16 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 973, art. A8
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-162192
• UDC: 524.8
• ISSN on article: 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad5da8
• COBISS.SI-ID: 208089091
• Publication date in RUL: 19.09.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: The Astrophysical journal
• Shortened title: Astrophys. j.
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press for the American Astronomical Society
• ISSN: 1538-4357
• COBISS.SI-ID: 515079705

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: N1-0238-2022
• Name: Raziskave kozmične zore z James Webb vesoljskim teleskopom

• Funder: NSF - National Science Foundation
• Project number: 2109066
• Name: NSF-BSF: Galaxies in the Reionization Era