分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Given their extremely faint apparent brightness, the nature of the first galaxies and how they reionized the Universe's gas are not yet understood. Here we report the discovery, in JWST imaging, of a highly magnified, low mass (log(Mstellar/Msun) = 7.63+0.22-0.24) galaxy visible when the Universe was only 510 Myr old, and follow-up JWST spectroscopy from Lyman alpha to [O III] 5007 A in its rest frame. We detect the [O III] 5007 A and H Beta emission lines with a respective signal-to-noies ratio of 40 and 7, and five additional lines with signal-to-noise greater than 3. The galaxy's magnification of approximately 20 allows us to measure a radius of 16.4+10.7-7.0 pc, which is a factor of 9.3+10.5-4.4 (3.5 sigma) smaller than galaxies with comparable luminosity at z = 6 - 8.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Using the novel $JWST$/NIRCam observations in the Abell 2744 field, we present a first spatially resolved overview of an $HST$-dark galaxy, spectroscopically confirmed at $z=2.58$ with magnification $\mu\approx1.9$. While being largely invisible at $\sim$1 $\mu$m with NIRCam, except for sparse clumpy sub-structures, the object is well-detected and resolved in the long-wavelength bands with a spiral shape clearly visible in F277W. By combining ancillary ALMA and $Herschel$ data, we infer that this object is an edge-on dusty spiral with an intrinsic stellar mass log$(M_*/M_\odot)\sim11.3$ and a dust-obscured SFR$\sim 300~M_\odot$~yr$^{-1}$. A massive quiescent galaxy (log$(M_*/M_\odot)\sim10.8$) with tidal features lies 2\farcs{0} away ($r$$\sim$9 kpc), at a consistent redshift as inferred by $JWST$ photometry, indicating a potential major merger. The dusty spiral lies on the main-sequence of star formation, and shows high dust attenuation in the optical ($34$ would be only detectable in F356W and F444W in UNCOVER-like survey, and become totally $JWST$-dark at $z\sim6$. This suggests that detecting highly attenuated galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization might be a challenging task for $JWST$.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: MACS0647$-$JD is a triply-lensed $z\sim11$ galaxy originally discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. Here we report new JWST imaging, which clearly resolves MACS0647$-$JD as having two components that are either merging galaxies or stellar complexes within a single galaxy. Both are very small, with stellar masses $\sim10^8\,M_\odot$ and radii $r<100\,\rm pc$. The brighter larger component "A" is intrinsically very blue ($\beta\sim-2.6$), likely due to very recent star formation and no dust, and is spatially extended with an effective radius $\sim70\,\rm pc$. The smaller component "B" appears redder ($\beta\sim-2$), likely because it is older ($100-200\,\rm Myr$) with mild dust extinction ($A_V\sim0.1\,\rm mag$), and a smaller radius $\sim20\,\rm pc$. We identify galaxies with similar colors in a high-redshift simulation, finding their star formation histories to be out of phase. With an estimated stellar mass ratio of roughly 2:1 and physical projected separation $\sim400\,\rm pc$, we may be witnessing a galaxy merger 400 million years after the Big Bang. We also identify a candidate companion galaxy C $\sim3\,{\rm kpc}$ away, likely destined to merge with galaxies A and B. The combined light from galaxies A+B is magnified by factors of $\sim$8, 5, and 2 in three lensed images JD1, 2, and 3 with F356W fluxes $\sim322$, $203$, $86\,\rm nJy$ (AB mag 25.1, 25.6, 26.6). MACS0647$-$JD is significantly brighter than other galaxies recently discovered at similar redshifts with JWST. Without magnification, it would have AB mag 27.3 ($M_{UV}=-20.4$). With a high confidence level, we obtain a photometric redshift of $z=10.6\pm0.3$ based on photometry measured in 6 NIRCam filters spanning $1-5\rm\mu m$, out to $4300\,\r{A}$ rest-frame. JWST NIRSpec observations planned for January 2023 will deliver a spectroscopic redshift and a more detailed study of the physical properties of MACS0647$-$JD.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: One of the most prominent features of galaxy clusters is the presence of a dominant population of massive ellipticals in their cores. Stellar archaeology suggests that these gigantic beasts assembled most of their stars in the early Universe via starbursts. However, the role of dense environments and their detailed physical mechanisms in triggering starburst activities remain unknown. Here we report spatially resolved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the CO $J= 3-2$ emission line, with a resolution of about 2.5 kiloparsecs, toward a forming galaxy cluster core with starburst galaxies at $z=2.51$. In contrast to starburst galaxies in the field often associated with galaxy mergers or highly turbulent gaseous disks, our observations show that the two starbursts in the cluster exhibit dynamically cold (rotation-dominated) gas-rich disks. Their gas disks have extremely low velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{\mathrm{0}} \sim 20-30$ km s$^{-1}$), which is three times lower than their field counterparts at similar redshifts. The high gas fraction and suppressed velocity dispersion yield gravitationally unstable gas disks, which enables highly efficient star formation. The suppressed velocity dispersion, likely induced by the accretion of corotating and coplanar cold gas, might serve as an essential avenue to trigger starbursts in massive halos at high redshifts.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Galaxies with stellar masses as high as $\sim 10^{11}$ solar masses have been identified out to redshifts $z \sim 6$, approximately one 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 $2.5\mum$. Here we make use of the $1-5\mum$ coverage of the JWST early release observations to search for intrinsically red galaxies in the first ~750 million years of cosmic history. In the survey area, we find six candidate massive galaxies (stellar mass $>10^{10}$ solar masses) at $7.4 < z < 9.1$, 500 - 700 Myr after the Big Bang, including one galaxy with a possible stellar mass of $\sim 10^{11}$ solar masses. If verified with spectroscopy, the stellar mass density in massive galaxies would be much higher than anticipated from previous studies based on rest-frame ultraviolet-selected samples.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The first few hundred Myrs at $z>10$ mark the last major uncharted epoch in the history of the Universe, where only a single galaxy (GNz11 at $z\approx11$) is currently spectroscopically confirmed. Here we present a search for luminous $z>10$ galaxies with $JWST$/NIRCam photometry spanning $\approx1-5\mu$m and covering 49 arcmin$^{2}$ from the public Early Release Science programs (CEERS and GLASS). Our most secure candidates are two $M_{\rm{UV}}\approx-21$ systems: GLASS-z12 and GLASS-z10. These galaxies display abrupt $\gtrsim1.8$ mag breaks in their spectral energy distributions, consistent with complete absorption of flux bluewards of Lyman-$\alpha$ that is redshifted to $z=12.4^{+0.1}_{-0.3}$ and $z=10.4^{+0.4}_{-0.5}$. Lower redshift interlopers such as quiescent galaxies with strong Balmer breaks would be comfortably detected at $>5\sigma$ in multiple bands where instead we find no flux. From SED modeling we infer that these galaxies have already built up $\sim 10^9$ solar masses in stars over the $\lesssim300-400$ Myrs after the Big Bang. The brightness of these sources enable morphological constraints. Tantalizingly, GLASS-z10 shows a clearly extended exponential light profile, potentially consistent with a disk galaxy of $r_{\rm{50}}\approx0.7$ kpc. These sources, if confirmed, join GNz11 in defying number density forecasts for luminous galaxies based on Schechter UV luminosity functions, which require a survey area $>10\times$ larger than we have studied here to find such luminous sources at such high redshifts. They extend evidence from lower redshifts for little or no evolution in the bright end of the UV luminosity function into the cosmic dawn epoch, with implications for just how early these galaxies began forming. This, in turn, suggests that future deep $JWST$ observations may identify relatively bright galaxies to much earlier epochs than might have been anticipated.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Cosmic hydrogen reionization and cosmic production of first metals are major phase transitions of the Universe occurring during the first billion years after the Big Bang, but still poorly explored observationally. Using the JWST NIRSpec prism spectroscopy, we report the discovery of a sub-$L_{\ast}$ galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=8.1623_{-0.0008}^{+0.0007}$, dubbed RXJ2129-z8HeII, via the detection of a series of strong rest-frame UV/optical nebular emission lines and the clear Lyman break. A strong He II $\lambda$1640 emission is present, the highest redshift He II line currently known. Its high rest-frame equivalent width (EW $=19.4\pm3.2$ Angstrom) and extreme flux ratios with respect to UV metal lines and Balmer lines raise the possibility that part of RXJ2129-z8HeII's stellar populations could be Pop III-like. RXJ2129-z8HeII also shows a pronounced UV continuum with an extremely steep (i.e. blue) spectral slope of $\beta=-2.50\pm0.08$, the steepest amongst all spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at $z\gtrsim7$, in support of its very hard ionizing spectrum that could lead to a significant leakage of its ionizing flux. Therefore, RXJ2129-z8HeII is representative of the key galaxy population driving the cosmic reionization. To date, this is also the most compelling case where trace Pop III stars might coexist with more metal-enriched stars.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Protoclusters of galaxies have been found in the last quarter century. However, most of them have been found through the overdensity of star-forming galaxies, and there had been no known structures identified by multiple spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at $z>2.5$. In this letter, we report the discovery of an overdense structure of massive quiescent galaxies with the spectroscopic redshift $z=2.77$ in the COSMOS field, QO-1000. We first photometrically identify this structure as a $4.2\sigma$ overdensity with 14 quiescent galaxies in $7\times4\ {\rm pMpc^2}$ from the COSMOS2020 catalog. We then securely confirm the spectroscopic redshifts of 4 quiescent galaxies by detecting multiple Balmer absorption lines with Keck/MOSFIRE. All the spectroscopically confirmed members are massive ($\log{(M_\star/M_\odot)}>11.0$) and located in a narrow redshift range ($2.7668$ times denser than in the general field. In addition, we confirm that they form a red sequence in the $J-K_s$ color. This structure's halo mass is estimated as $\log{(M_{\rm halo}/M_\odot)}>13.2$ from their stellar mass. Similar structures found in the IllustrisTNG simulation are expected to evolve into massive galaxy clusters with $\log{(M_{\rm halo}/M_\odot)}\geq14.8$ at $z=0$. These results suggest that QO-1000 is a more mature protocluster than the other known protoclusters. It is likely in a transition phase between the star-forming protoclusters and the quenched galaxy clusters.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We conduct a systematic search for protocluster candidates at $z \geq 6$ in the COSMOS field using the recently released COSMOS2020 source catalog. We select galaxies using a number of selection criteria to obtain a sample of galaxies that have a high probability of being inside a given redshift bin. We then apply overdensity analysis to the bins using two density estimators, a Weighted Adaptive Kernel Estimator and a Weighted Voronoi Tessellation Estimator. We have found 15 significant ($>4\sigma$) candidate galaxy overdensities across the redshift range $6\le z\le7.7$. The majority of the galaxies appear to be on the galaxy main sequence at their respective epochs. We use multiple stellar-mass-to-halo-mass conversion methods to obtain a range of dark matter halo mass estimates for the overdensities in the range of $\sim10^{11-13}\,M_{\rm \odot}$, at the respective redshifts of the overdensities. The number and the masses of the halos associated with our protocluster candidates are consistent with what is expected from the area of a COSMOS-like survey in a standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Through comparison with simulation, we expect that all the overdensities at $z\simeq6$ will evolve into a Virgo-/Coma-like clusters at present (i.e., with masses $\sim 10^{14}-10^{15}\,M_{\rm \odot}$). Compared to other overdensities identified at $z \geq 6$ via narrow-band selection techniques, the overdensities presented appear to have $\sim10\times$ higher stellar masses and star-formation rates. We compare the evolution in the total star-formation rate and stellar mass content of the protocluster candidates across the redshift range $6\le z\le7.7$ and find agreement with the total average star-formation rate from simulations.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The abundance of carbon relative to oxygen (C/O) is a promising probe of star formation history in the early universe, as these elements are produced on different timescales. We present a measurement of $\log{\mathrm{(C/O)}} = -1.01\pm0.12$ (stat) $\pm0.10$ (sys) in a $z=6.23$ galaxy observed as part of the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. Notably, we achieve good precision thanks to the detection of the rest-frame ultraviolet O III], C III], and C IV emission lines delivered by JWST/NIRSpec. The C/O abundance is $\sim$0.8 dex lower than the solar value and is consistent with the expected yield from core-collapse supernovae, indicating negligible carbon enrichment from intermediate-mass stars. This in turn implies rapid buildup of a young stellar population with age $\lesssim$100 Myr in a galaxy seen $\sim$900 million years after the Big Bang. Our chemical abundance analysis is consistent with spectral energy distribution modeling of JWST/NIRCam photometric data, which indicates a current stellar mass $\log\,\mathrm{M}_* / \mathrm{Msun} = 8.4^{+0.4}_{-0.2}$ and specific star formation rate sSFR $\simeq 20$ Gyr$^{-1}$. These results showcase the value of chemical abundances and C/O in particular to study the earliest stages of galaxy assembly.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: JWST was designed to peer into the distant universe and study galaxies nearer the beginning of time than previously. Here we report the discovery of 12 galaxy candidates observed 300-600 Myr after the Big Bang with photometric redshifts between z ~ 8.5-13 measured using JWST NIRCam imaging of the galaxy cluster WHL0137 observed in 8 filters spanning 0.8-5.0 $\mu$m, plus 9 HST filters spanning 0.4-1.7 $\mu$m. Three of these candidates are gravitationally lensed by the foreground galaxy cluster and have magnifications of $\mu \sim 3 - 8$. The remaining nine candidates are located in a second JWST NIRCam module, centered ~29' from the cluster center, with expected magnifications of $\mu$ <~ 1.1. Our sample of high-redshift candidates have observed F200W AB magnitudes between 25.9 and 28.1 mag and intrinsic F200W AB magnitudes between 26.4 and 29.7 mag ($M_{UV}$ = -22.5 to -17). We find the stellar masses of these galaxies are in the range $\log M_{*}/M_{\odot}$ = 8 - 9, and down to 7.5 for the lensed galaxies. All are young with mass-weighted ages < 100 Myr, low dust content $A_V$ < 0.15 mag, and high specific star formation rates sSFR ~10-50 Gyr$^{-1}$ for most. One z ~ 9 candidate is consistent with an age < 5 Myr and a sSFR ~250 Gyr$^{-1}$, as inferred from a strong F444W excess, implying [OIII]+H-beta rest-frame equivalent width ~2000 Angstrom, although an older and redder z~ 10 object is also allowed. Another z~9 candidate ID9356 is lensed into an arc 2.6" long by the effects of strong gravitational lensing ($\mu$~8), and has at least two bright knots of unevenly distributed star formation. This arc is the most spatially-resolved galaxy at z~9 known to date, revealing structures ~30 pc across. Follow-up spectroscopy of WHL0137 with JWST/NIRSpec is planned for later this year, which will validate some of these candidates and study their physical properties in more detail.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We select and characterise a sample of massive
(log(M$_{*}/$M$_{\odot})>10.6$) quiescent galaxies (QGs) at $33$. We compute
median rest-frame SEDs for our sample and find the median quiescent galaxy at
$3
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present the reduced images and multi-wavelength catalog of the first JWST NIRCam extra-galactic observations from the GLASS Early Release Science Program, obtained as coordinated parallels of the NIRISS observations of the Abell 2744 cluster. Images in seven bands (F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F444W) have been reduced using an augmented version of the official JWST pipeline; we discuss the procedures adopted to remove or mitigate defects in the raw images. We obtain a multi--band catalog by means of forced aperture photometry on PSF-matched images at the position of F444W-detected sources. The catalog is intended to enable early scientific investigations, and it is optimized for faint galaxies; it contains 6368 sources, with limiting magnitude 29.7 at 5$\sigma$ in F444W. We release both images and catalog in order to allow the community to familiarize with the JWST NIRCam data and evaluate their merit and limitations given the current level of knowledge of the instrument.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present ALMA deep spectroscopy for a lensed galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=8.496$ with $\log(M_{\rm star}/M_{\odot})\sim7.8$ whose optical nebular lines and stellar continuum are detected by JWST/NIRSpec and NIRCam Early Release Observations in SMACS0723. Our ALMA spectrum shows [OIII]88$\mu$m and [CII]158$\mu$m line detections at $4.0\sigma$ and $4.5\sigma$, respectively. The redshift and position of the [OIII] line coincide with those of the JWST source, while the [CII] line is blue-shifted by 90 km s$^{-1}$ with a spatial offset of $0.''5$ ($\approx0.5$ kpc in source plane) from the JWST source. The NIRCam F444W image, including [OIII]$\lambda$5007 and H$\beta$ line emission, spatially extends beyond the stellar components by a factor of $>8$. This indicates that the $z=8.5$ galaxy has already experienced strong outflows whose oxygen and carbon produce the extended [OIII]$\lambda$5007 and the offset [CII] emission, which would promote ionizing photon escape and facilitate reionization. With careful slit-loss corrections and removals of emission spatially outside the galaxy, we evaluate the [OIII]88$\mu$m/$\lambda$5007 line ratio, and derive the electron density $n_{\rm e}$ by photoionization modeling to be $220^{+170}_{-100}$ cm$^{-3}$, which is comparable with those of $z\sim2-3$ galaxies. We estimate an [OIII]88$\mu$m/[CII]158$\mu$m line ratio in the galaxy of $>4$, as high as those of known $z\sim6-9$ galaxies. This high [OIII]88$\mu$m/[CII]158$\mu$m line ratio is generally explained by the high $n_{\rm e}$ as well as the low metallicity ($Z_{\rm gas}/Z_{\odot}=0.04^{+0.02}_{-0.02}$), high ionization parameter ($\log U > -2.27$), and low carbon-to-oxygen abundance ratio ($\log$(C/O) $=[-0.52:-0.24]$) obtained from the JWST/NIRSpec data; further [CII] follow-up observations will constrain the covering fraction of photodissociation regions.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: In November 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) returned deep near-infrared images of Abell~2744 -- a powerful lensing cluster capable of magnifying distant, incipient galaxies beyond it. Together with the existing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, this publicly available dataset opens a fundamentally new discovery space to understand the remaining mysteries of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. In this work, we detect and measure some 50,000 objects across the 45 arcmin$^2$ JWST footprint down to a $5\,\sigma$ limiting magnitude of $\sim$29.9\,mag in 0.32" apertures. Photometry is performed using circular apertures on images matched to the point spread function of the reddest NIRCam band, F444W, and cleaned of bright cluster galaxies and the related intra-cluster light. To give an impression of the photometric performance, we measure photometric redshifts and achieve a $\sigma_{\rm NMAD}\approx0.03$ based on known, but relatively small, spectroscopic samples. With this paper, we publicly release HST and JWST PSF-matched photometric catalogs optimized for bright and extended sources (0.7" apertures) and compact and faint sources (0.32" apertures) along with basic photometric redshifts, rest-frame colors, and individual magnification estimates. These catalogs will set the stage for efficient and deep spectroscopic follow-up of the first JWST-selected samples in Summer 2023.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present ALMA Band 7 observations of a remarkably bright galaxy candidate at $z_{\rm phot}$=$16.7^{+1.9}_{-0.3}$ ($M_{\rm UV}$=$-21.6$), S5-z17-1, identified in JWST Early Release Observation data of Stephen's Quintet. We do not detect the dust continuum at 866 $\mu$m, ruling out the possibility that S5-z17-1 is a low-$z$ dusty starburst with a star-formation rate (SFR) of $\gtrsim 30\,M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. We detect a 5.1$\sigma$ line feature at $338.726\pm0.007$ GHz exactly coinciding with the JWST source position, with a 2% likelihood of the signal being spurious. The most likely line identification would be [OIII]52$\mu$m at $z=16.01$ or [CII]158$\mu$m at $z=4.61$, whose line luminosities do not violate the non-detection of the dust continuum in both cases. Together with three other $z\gtrsim$ 11-13 candidate galaxies recently observed with ALMA, we conduct a joint ALMA and JWST spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis and find that the high-$z$ solution at $z\sim$11-17 is favored in every candidate as a very blue (UV continuum slope of $\approx-2.3$) and luminous ($M_{\rm UV}$ $\approx$ [$-$24:$-$21]) system. Still, we find in some candidates that reasonable SED fits ($\Delta$ $\chi^{2}\lesssim4$) are reproduced by type-II quasar and/or quiescent galaxy templates with strong emission lines at $z\sim3$-5, where such populations predicted from their luminosity functions and EW([OIII]+H$\beta$) distributions are abundant in survey volumes used for the $z\sim$11-17 candidates. While these recent ALMA observation results have strengthened the likelihood of the high-$z$ solutions, lower-$z$ possibilities are not completely ruled out in some of the $z\sim$11-17 candidates.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We report the discovery of an extremely magnified star at redshift $z=2.65$ in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRISS pre-imaging of the Abell 2744 galaxy-cluster field. The star's background host galaxy lies on a fold caustic of the foreground lens, and the cluster creates a pair of images of the region close to the lensed star. We identified the bright transient in one of the merging images at a distance of $\sim 0.15"$ from the critical curve, by subtracting the JWST F115W and F150W imaging from coadditions of archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) F105W and F125W images and F140W and F160W images, respectively. Since the time delay between the two images should be only hours, the transient must be the microlensing event of an individual star, as opposed to a luminous stellar explosion which would persist for days to months. Analysis of individual exposures suggests that the star's magnification is not changing rapidly during the observations. From photometry of the point source through the F115W, F150W, and F200W filters, we identify a strong Balmer break, and modeling allows us to constrain the star's temperature to be approximately 7,000--12,000 K.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present the first search for $z\geqslant7$, continuum-confirmed sources with NIRISS/WFS spectroscopy over the Abell 2744 Frontier Fields cluster, as part of the GLASS-JWST ERS survey. With $\sim15$ hrs of pre-imaging and multi-angle grism exposures in the F115W, F150W, and F200W filters, we describe the general data handling (i.e., reduction, cleaning, modeling, and extraction processes) and analysis for the GLASS-JWST survey. We showcase the power of JWST to peer deep into reionization, when most intergalactic hydrogen is neutral, by confirming two galaxies at $z=8.04\pm0.15$ and $z=7.90\pm0.13$ by means of their Lyman breaks. Fainter continuum spectra are observed in both the F150W and F200W bands, indicative of blue ($-1.69$ and $-1.33$) UV slopes and moderately-bright absolute magnitudes ($-20.37$ and $-19.68$ mag). We do not detect strong Ly$\alpha$ in either galaxy, but do observe tentative ($\sim2.7-3.8\sigma$) HeII$\lambda$1640 A, OIII]$\lambda\lambda$1661,1666 A, and NIII]$\lambda\lambda$1747,1749 A line emission in one, suggestive of low metallicity, star-forming systems with possible non-thermal contributions. These novel observations provide a first look at the extraordinary potential of JWST/NIRISS for confirming representative samples of bright $z\geqslant7$ sources in the absence of strong emission lines, and gain unprecedented insight into their contributions towards cosmic reionization.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present images and a multi-wavelength photometric catalog based on all of the JWST NIRCam observations obtained to date in the region of the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster. These data come from three different programs, namely the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program, UNCOVER, and Director's Discretionary Time program 2756. The observed area in the NIRCam wide-band filters - covering the central and extended regions of the cluster, as well as new parallel fields - is 46.5 arcmin$^2$ in total. All images in eight bands (F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F410M, F444W) have been reduced adopting the latest calibration and references available to date. Data reduction has been performed using an augmented version of the official JWST pipeline, with improvements aimed at removing or mitigating defects in the raw images and improve the background subtraction and photometric accuracy. We obtain a F444W-detected multi-band catalog including all NIRCam data and available HST data, adopting forced aperture photometry on PSF-matched images. The catalog is intended to enable early scientific investigations, and is optimized for the study of faint galaxies; it contains 24389 sources, with a 5$\sigma$ limiting magnitude in the F444W band ranging from 28.5 to 30.5 AB, as a result of the varying exposure times of the surveys that observed the field. We publicly release the reduced NIRCam images, associated multi-wavelength catalog, and code adopted for $1/f$ noise removal with tha aim of aiding users to familiarize themselves with JWST NIRCam data and identify targets for follow-up observations.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We report the first gas-phase metallicity map of a distant galaxy measured with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We use the NIRISS slitless spectroscopy acquired by the GLASS Early Release Science program to spatially resolve the rest-frame optical nebular emission lines in a gravitationally lensed galaxy at $z=3.06$ behind the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster. This galaxy (dubbed GLASS-Zgrad1) has stellar mass $\sim10^{8.6} M_\odot$, instantaneous star formation rate $\sim8.6$ $M_\odot$/yr (both corrected for lensing magnification), and global metallicity one-fourth solar. From its emission line maps ([O III], H$\beta$, H$\gamma$, [Ne III], and [O II]) we derive its spatial distribution of gas-phase metallicity using a well-established forward-modeling Bayesian inference method. The exquisite resolution and sensitivity of JWST/NIRISS, combined with lensing magnification, enable us to resolve this $z\sim3$ dwarf galaxy in $\gtrsim$50 resolution elements with sufficient signal, an analysis hitherto not possible. We find that the radial metallicity gradient of GLASS-Zgrad1 is strongly inverted (i.e. positive): $\Delta\log({\rm O/H})/\Delta r$ = $0.165\pm0.023$ $\mathrm{dex~kpc^{-1}}$. This inverted gradient may be due to tidal torques induced by a massive nearby ($\sim$15 kpc projected) galaxy, which can cause inflows of metal-poor gas into the central regions of GLASS-Zgrad1. These first results showcase the power of JWST wide-field slitless spectroscopic modes to resolve the mass assembly and chemical enrichment of low-mass galaxies in and beyond the peak epoch of cosmic star formation ($z\gtrsim2$). Reaching masses $\lesssim 10^9~M_\odot$ at these redshifts is especially valuable to constrain the effects of galactic feedback and environment, and is possible only with JWST's new capabilities.