A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

Ivo Labbé¹, Pieter van Dokkum², Erica Nelson³, Rachel Bezanson⁴, Katherine A Suess^{5

6}, Joel Leja^{7

8

9}, Gabriel Brammer¹⁰, Katherine Whitaker^{10

11}, Elijah Mathews^{7

8

9}, Mauro Stefanon^{12

13}, Bingjie Wang^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ilabbe@swin.edu.au.
² Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
³ Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
⁶ Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁸ Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁹ Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, København N, Denmark.
¹¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
¹² Departament of Astronomy and Astrophisics, University of Valencia Burjassot, Valencia, Spain.
¹³ University Association CSIC 'Group of Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology' (Institute of Physics at Cantabria University of Valencia), Santander, Spain.

PMID: 36812940
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05786-2

A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

Ivo Labbé et al. Nature. 2023 Apr.

. 2023 Apr;616(7956):266-269.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-05786-2. Epub 2023 Feb 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ilabbe@swin.edu.au.
² Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
³ Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
⁶ Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁸ Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁹ Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, København N, Denmark.
¹¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
¹² Departament of Astronomy and Astrophisics, University of Valencia Burjassot, Valencia, Spain.
¹³ University Association CSIC 'Group of Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology' (Institute of Physics at Cantabria University of Valencia), Santander, Spain.

PMID: 36812940
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05786-2

Abstract

Galaxies with stellar masses as high as roughly 10¹¹ solar masses have been identified^1-3 out to redshifts z of roughly 6, around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. It has been difficult to find massive galaxies at even earlier times, as the Balmer break region, which is needed for accurate mass estimates, is redshifted to wavelengths beyond 2.5 μm. Here we make use of the 1-5 μm coverage of the James Webb Space Telescope early release observations to search for intrinsically red galaxies in the first roughly 750 million years of cosmic history. In the survey area, we find six candidate massive galaxies (stellar mass more than 10¹⁰ solar masses) at 7.4 ≤ z ≤ 9.1, 500-700 Myr after the Big Bang, including one galaxy with a possible stellar mass of roughly 10¹¹ solar masses. If verified with spectroscopy, the stellar mass density in massive galaxies would be much higher than anticipated from previous studies on the basis of rest-frame ultraviolet-selected samples.

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References

1. Glazebrook, K. et al. A massive, quiescent galaxy at a redshift of 3.717. Nature 544, 71–74 (2017). - PubMed - DOI
1. Riechers, D. A. et al. Rise of the Titans: gas excitation and feedback in a binary hyperluminous dusty starburst galaxy at z ~ 6. Astrophys. J. 907, 62 (2021). - DOI
1. Stefanon, M. et al. Galaxy stellar mass functions from z ~ 10 to z ~ 6 using the deepest Spitzer/infrared array camera data: no significant evolution in the stellar-to-halo mass ratio of galaxies in the first gigayear of cosmic time. Astrophys. J. 922, 29 (2021). - DOI
1. Brammer, G. & Matharu, J. gbrammer/grizli: Release 2021. Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/7767790#.ZCRGM-zMJxY (2021).
1. Schaerer, D. & de Barros, S. The impact of nebular emission on the ages of z ≈ 6 galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 502, 423–426 (2009). - DOI

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A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

Affiliations

A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

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LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources