A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract We report the discovery of a candidate galaxy with a photo-z of z 12 in the first epoch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey. Following conservative selection criteria, we identify a source with a robust z phot = 11.8 0.2 + 0.3 (1 uncertainty) with m F200W = 27.3 and 7 detections in five filters. The source is not detected at < 1.4 m in deep imaging from both Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and JWST and has faint 3 detections in JWST F150W and HST F160W, which signal a Ly break near the red edge of both filters, implying z 12. This object (Maisies Galaxy) exhibits F115W F200W > 1.9 mag (2 lower limit) with a blue continuum slope, resulting in 99.6% of the photo-z probability distribution function favoring z > 11. All data-quality images show no artifacts at the candidates position, and independent analyses consistently find a strong preference for z > 11. Its colors are inconsistent with Galactic stars, and it is resolved (r h = 340 14 pc). Maisies Galaxy has log M */M 8.5 and is highly star-forming (log sSFR 8.2 yr1), with a blue rest-UV color ( 2.5) indicating little dust, though not extremely low metallicity. While the presence of this source is in tension with most predictions, it agrees with empirical extrapolations assuming UV luminosity functions that smoothly decline with increasing redshift. Should follow-up spectroscopy validate this redshift, our universe was already aglow with galaxies less than 400 Myr after the Big Bang.

published proceedings

  • ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS

altmetric score

  • 760.75

author list (cited authors)

  • Finkelstein, S. L., Bagley, M. B., Haro, P. A., Dickinson, M., Ferguson, H. C., Kartaltepe, J. S., ... Zavala, J. A.

citation count

  • 61

complete list of authors

  • Finkelstein, Steven L||Bagley, Micaela B||Haro, Pablo Arrabal||Dickinson, Mark||Ferguson, Henry C||Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S||Papovich, Casey||Burgarella, Denis||Kocevski, Dale D||Huertas-Company, Marc||Iyer, Kartheik G||Koekemoer, Anton M||Larson, Rebecca L||Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G||Rose, Caitlin||Tacchella, Sandro||Wilkins, Stephen M||Chworowsky, Katherine||Medrano, Aubrey||Morales, Alexa M||Somerville, Rachel S||Yung, LY Aaron||Fontana, Adriano||Giavalisco, Mauro||Grazian, Andrea||Grogin, Norman A||Kewley, Lisa J||Kirkpatrick, Allison||Kurczynski, Peter||Lotz, Jennifer M||Pentericci, Laura||Pirzkal, Nor||Ravindranath, Swara||Ryan, Russell E Jr||Trump, Jonathan R||Yang, Guang||Almaini, Omar||Amorin, Ricardo O||Annunziatella, Marianna||Backhaus, Bren E||Barro, Guillermo||Behroozi, Peter||Bell, Eric F||Bhatawdekar, Rachana||Bisigello, Laura||Bromm, Volker||Buat, Veronique||Buitrago, Fernando||Calabro, Antonello||Casey, Caitlin M||Castellano, Marco||Ortiz, Oscar A Chavez||Ciesla, Laure||Cleri, Nikko J||Cohen, Seth H||Cole, Justin W||Cooke, Kevin C||Cooper, MC||Cooray, Asantha R||Costantin, Luca||Cox, Isabella G||Croton, Darren||Daddi, Emanuele||Dave, Romeel||de la Vega, Alexander||Dekel, Avishai||Elbaz, David||Estrada-Carpenter, Vicente||Faber, Sandra M||Fernandez, Vital||Finkelstein, Keely D||Freundlich, Jonathan||Fujimoto, Seiji||Garcia-Argumanez, Angela||Gardner, Jonathan P||Gawiser, Eric||Gomez-Guijarro, Carlos||Guo, Yuchen||Hamblin, Kurt||Hamilton, Timothy S||Hathi, Nimish P||Holwerda, Benne W||Hirschmann, Michaela||Hutchison, Taylor A||Jaskot, Anne E||Jha, Saurabh W||Jogee, Shardha||Juneau, Stephanie||Jung, Intae||Kassin, Susan A||Le Bail, Aurelien||Leung, Gene CK||Lucas, Ray A||Magnelli, Benjamin||Mantha, Kameswara Bharadwaj||Matharu, Jasleen||McGrath, Elizabeth J||McIntosh, Daniel H||Merlin, Emiliano||Mobasher, Bahram||Newman, Jeffrey A||Nicholls, David C||Pandya, Viraj||Rafelski, Marc||Ronayne, Kaila||Santini, Paola||Seille, Lise-Marie||Shah, Ekta A||Shen, Lu||Simons, Raymond C||Snyder, Gregory F||Stanway, Elizabeth R||Straughn, Amber N||Teplitz, Harry I||Vanderhoof, Brittany N||Vega-Ferrero, Jesus||Wang, Weichen||Weiner, Benjamin J||Willmer, Christopher NA||Wuyts, Stijn||Zavala, Jorge A

publication date

  • December 2022