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Glazebrook K, Nanayakkara T, Schreiber C, Lagos C, Kawinwanichakij L, Jacobs C, Chittenden H, Brammer G, Kacprzak GG, Labbe I, Marchesini D, Marsan ZC, Oesch PA, Papovich C, Remus RS, Tran KVH, Esdaile J, Chandro-Gomez A. A massive galaxy that formed its stars at z ≈ 11. Nature 2024; 628:277-281. [PMID: 38354832 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07191-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024]
Abstract
The formation of galaxies by gradual hierarchical co-assembly of baryons and cold dark matter halos is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics1,2 and predicts a strong decline in the number of massive galaxies at early cosmic times3-5. Extremely massive quiescent galaxies (stellar masses of more than 1011 M⊙) have now been observed as early as 1-2 billion years after the Big Bang6-13. These galaxies are extremely constraining on theoretical models, as they had formed 300-500 Myr earlier, and only some models can form massive galaxies this early12,14. Here we report on the spectroscopic observations with the JWST of a massive quiescent galaxy ZF-UDS-7329 at redshift 3.205 ± 0.005. It has eluded deep ground-based spectroscopy8, it is significantly redder than is typical and its spectrum reveals features typical of much older stellar populations. Detailed modelling shows that its stellar population formed around 1.5 billion years earlier in time (z ≈ 11) at an epoch when dark matter halos of sufficient hosting mass had not yet assembled in the standard scenario4,5. This observation may indicate the presence of undetected populations of early galaxies and the possibility of significant gaps in our understanding of early stellar populations, galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karl Glazebrook
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Themiya Nanayakkara
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Claudia Lagos
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- ARC Centre for Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Colin Jacobs
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Harry Chittenden
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Gabriel Brammer
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Glenn G Kacprzak
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Ivo Labbe
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Danilo Marchesini
- Physics and Astronomy Department, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
| | - Z Cemile Marsan
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Pascal A Oesch
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Versoix, Switzerland
| | - Casey Papovich
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Rhea-Silvia Remus
- Universitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Kim-Vy H Tran
- ARC Centre for Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
- Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - James Esdaile
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
| | - Angel Chandro-Gomez
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
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Nanayakkara T, Glazebrook K, Jacobs C, Kawinwanichakij L, Schreiber C, Brammer G, Esdaile J, Kacprzak GG, Labbe I, Lagos C, Marchesini D, Marsan ZC, Oesch PA, Papovich C, Remus RS, Tran KVH. A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at [Formula: see text] revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy. Sci Rep 2024; 14:3724. [PMID: 38355772 PMCID: PMC10866911 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at [Formula: see text] observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive ([Formula: see text] M[Formula: see text]), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed [Formula: see text] M[Formula: see text] of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia.
| | - Karl Glazebrook
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | - Colin Jacobs
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | - Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | | | - Gabriel Brammer
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, 2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - James Esdaile
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | - Glenn G Kacprzak
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | - Ivo Labbe
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
| | - Claudia Lagos
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, 2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark
- ARC Centre for Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D, Canberra, Australia
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, 7 Fairway, Crawley, 6009, WA, Australia
| | - Danilo Marchesini
- Physics and Astronomy Department, Tufts University, 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA, 02155, USA
| | - Z Cemile Marsan
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada
| | - Pascal A Oesch
- Cosmic DAWN Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, 2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290, Versoix, Switzerland
| | - Casey Papovich
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A &M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4242, USA
| | - Rhea-Silvia Remus
- University Observatory Munich, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679, Munich, Germany
| | - Kim-Vy H Tran
- School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
- ARC Centre for Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D, Canberra, Australia
- Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
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