The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
JWST Reveals a Population of Ultrared, Flattened Galaxies at 2 ≲ z ≲ 6 Previously Missed by HST
- Erica J. Nelson,
- Katherine A. Suess,
- Rachel Bezanson,
- Sedona H. Price,
- Pieter van Dokkum,
- Joel Leja,
- Bingjie Wang,
- Katherine E. Whitaker,
- Ivo Labbé,
- Laia Barrufet,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Daniel J. Eisenstein,
- Justus Gibson,
- Abigail I. Hartley,
- Benjamin D. Johnson,
- Kasper E. Heintz,
- Elijah Mathews,
- Tim B. Miller,
- Pascal A. Oesch,
- Lester Sandles,
- David J. Setton,
- Joshua S. Speagle,
- Sandro Tacchella,
- Ken-ichi Tadaki,
- Hannah Übler,
- John. R. Weaver
Affiliations
- Erica J. Nelson
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, USA ; [email protected]
- Katherine A. Suess
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University , Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Rachel Bezanson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Sedona H. Price
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) , Giessenbachstr. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
- Pieter van Dokkum
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Department, Yale University , 52 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Joel Leja
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Bingjie Wang
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Katherine E. Whitaker
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark
- Ivo Labbé
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Laia Barrufet
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Gabriel Brammer
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, Kø benhavn N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Daniel J. Eisenstein
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Justus Gibson
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, USA ; [email protected]
- Abigail I. Hartley
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, USA ; [email protected]
- Benjamin D. Johnson
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Kasper E. Heintz
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, Kø benhavn N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Elijah Mathews
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Tim B. Miller
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Department, Yale University , 52 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Pascal A. Oesch
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, Kø benhavn N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Lester Sandles
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK; Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge , 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- David J. Setton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Joshua S. Speagle
- ORCiD
- David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 St George Street, Toronto ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto , 100 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
- Sandro Tacchella
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK; Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge , 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- Ken-ichi Tadaki
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
- Hannah Übler
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK; Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge , 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- John. R. Weaver
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acc1e1
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 948,
no. 2
p. L18
Abstract
With just a month of data, JWST is already transforming our view of the universe, revealing and resolving starlight in unprecedented populations of galaxies. Although “HST-dark” galaxies have previously been detected at long wavelengths, these observations generally suffer from a lack of spatial resolution, which limits our ability to characterize their sizes and morphologies. Here we report on a first view of starlight from a subset of the HST-dark population that is bright with JWST/NIRCam (4.4 μ m < 24.5 mag) and very faint or even invisible with HST (<1.6 μ m). In this Letter we focus on a dramatic and unanticipated population of physically extended galaxies (≳0.″25). These 12 galaxies have photometric redshifts 2 < z < 6, high stellar masses M _⋆ ≳ 10 ^10 M _⊙ , and significant dust-attenuated star formation. Surprisingly, the galaxies have elongated projected axis ratios at 4.4 μ m, suggesting that the population is disk dominated or prolate and we hence refer to them as ultrared flattened objects. Most of the galaxies appear red at all radii, suggesting significant dust attenuation throughout. With R _e (F444W) ∼ 1–2 kpc, the galaxies are similar in size to compact massive galaxies at z ∼ 2 and the cores of massive galaxies and S0s at z ∼ 0. The stellar masses, sizes, and morphologies of the sample suggest that some could be progenitors of lenticular or fast-rotating galaxies in the local universe. The existence of this population suggests that our previous censuses of the universe may have missed massive, dusty edge-on disks, in addition to dust-obscured starbursts.
Keywords
