The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2025)
A Glimpse of the New Redshift Frontier through AS1063
- Vasily Kokorev,
- Hakim Atek,
- John Chisholm,
- Ryan Endsley,
- Iryna Chemerynska,
- Julian B. Muñoz,
- Lukas J. Furtak,
- Richard Pan,
- Danielle Berg,
- Seiji Fujimoto,
- Pascal A. Oesch,
- Andrea Weibel,
- Angela Adamo,
- Jeremy Blaizot,
- Rychard Bouwens,
- Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky,
- Gourav Khullar,
- Damien Korber,
- Ilias Goovaerts,
- Michelle Jecmen,
- Ivo Labbé,
- Floriane Leclercq,
- Rui Marques-Chaves,
- Charlotte Mason,
- Kristen B. W. McQuinn,
- Rohan Naidu,
- Priyamvada Natarajan,
- Erica Nelson,
- Joki Rosdahl,
- Alberto Saldana-Lopez,
- Daniel Schaerer,
- Maxime Trebitsch,
- Marta Volonteri,
- Adi Zitrin
Affiliations
- Vasily Kokorev
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Hakim Atek
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France
- John Chisholm
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Ryan Endsley
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Iryna Chemerynska
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France
- Julian B. Muñoz
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Lukas J. Furtak
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Be’er-Sheva 84105, Israel
- Richard Pan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Tufts University , Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Danielle Berg
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Seiji Fujimoto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Pascal A. Oesch
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark; Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Andrea Weibel
- ORCiD
- Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Angela Adamo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Jeremy Blaizot
- ORCiD
- Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1 , CRAL UMR5574, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, Villeurbanne, F-69622, France
- Rychard Bouwens
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , NL-2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
- Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky
- ORCiD
- Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Gourav Khullar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Damien Korber
- ORCiD
- Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Ilias Goovaerts
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Michelle Jecmen
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA ; [email protected]
- Ivo Labbé
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Floriane Leclercq
- ORCiD
- Univ Lyon , Ens de Lyon, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574, F-69230, Saint-Genis-Laval, France
- Rui Marques-Chaves
- ORCiD
- Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Charlotte Mason
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Kristen B. W. McQuinn
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
- Rohan Naidu
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Priyamvada Natarajan
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Yale University , 219 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Erica Nelson
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, USA
- Joki Rosdahl
- ORCiD
- Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1 , CRAL UMR5574, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, Villeurbanne, F-69622, France
- Alberto Saldana-Lopez
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Daniel Schaerer
- ORCiD
- Département d’Astronomie, Université de Genève , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Maxime Trebitsch
- ORCiD
- LERMA, Sorbonne Université , Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, 75014 Paris, France
- Marta Volonteri
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Be’er-Sheva 84105, Israel
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adc458
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 983,
no. 1
p. L22
Abstract
We report the discovery of two galaxy candidates at redshifts between 15.7 < z < 16.4 in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations from the GLIMPSE survey. These robust sources were identified using a combination of Lyman break selection and photometric redshift estimates. The ultradeep NIRCam imaging from GLIMPSE, combined with the strong gravitational lensing of the AS1063 galaxy cluster, allows us to probe an intrinsically fainter population (down to M _UV = −17.0 mag) than previously achievable. These galaxies have absolute magnitudes ranging from M _UV = −17.0 to −17.2 mag, with blue ( β ≃ −2.87) ultraviolet (UV) continuum slopes, consistent with young, dust-free stellar populations. The number density of these objects, log _10 ( ϕ /[Mpc ^−3 mag ^−1 ]) = $-3.4{7}_{-0.10}^{+0.13}$ at M _UV = −17, is in clear tension with pre-JWST theoretical predictions, extending the overabundance of galaxies from z ∼ 10 to z ∼ 17. These results, together with the scarcity of brighter galaxies in other public surveys, suggest a steep decline in the bright end of the UV luminosity function at z ∼ 16, implying efficient star formation and possibly a close connection to the halo mass function at these redshifts. Testing a variety of star formation histories suggests that these sources are plausible progenitors of the unusually UV-bright galaxies that JWST now routinely uncovers at z = 10–14. Overall, our results indicate that the luminosity distribution of the earliest star-forming galaxies could be shifting toward fainter luminosities, implying that future surveys of cosmic dawn will need to explore this faint luminosity regime.
Keywords
