Photometric detection at 7.7 µm of a galaxy beyond redshift 14 with JWST/MIRI
Pérez-González, Pablo G.; Charlot, Stéphane; Chevallard, Jacopo; Carniani, Stefano; D'Eugenio, Francesco; Bunker, Andrew J.; Maiolino, Roberto; Jones, Gareth C.; Scholtz, Jan; Willott, Chris; Cargile, Phillip A.; Johnson, Benjamin D.; Ji, Zhiyuan; Shivaei, Irene; Lyu, Jianwei; Rieke, George H.; Saxena, Aayush; Witstok, Joris; Alberts, Stacey; Egami, Eiichi; Eisenstein, Daniel J.; Sun, Fengwu; Tacchella, Sandro; Williams, Christina C.; Willmer, Christopher N. A.; Baker, William M.; Bhatawdekar, Rachana; Helton, Jakob M.; Whitler, Lily; Hainline, Kevin N.; Rieke, Marcia J.; Robertson, Brant; Zhu, Yongda; Wu, Zihao
United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Canada
Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spectroscopically confirmed numerous galaxies at z > 10. While weak rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines have only been seen in a handful of sources, the stronger rest-frame optical emission lines are highly diagnostic and accessible at mid-infrared wavelengths with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of JWST. We report the photometric detection of the distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 at z =14.3 2−0.20+0.08 with MIRI at 7.7 μm. The most plausible solution for the stellar-population properties is that this galaxy contains half a billion solar masses in stars with a strong burst of star formation in the most recent few million years. For this model, at least one-third of the flux at 7.7 μm originates from the rest-frame optical emission lines Hβ and/or [O III]λλ4959, 5007. The inferred properties of JADES-GS-z14-0 suggest rapid mass assembly and metal enrichment during the earliest phases of galaxy formation. This work demonstrates the unique power of mid-infrared observations in understanding galaxies at the redshift frontier.