The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
PEARLS: A Potentially Isolated Quiescent Dwarf Galaxy with a Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance of 30 Mpc
- Timothy Carleton,
- Timothy Ellsworth-Bowers,
- Rogier A. Windhorst,
- Seth H. Cohen,
- Christopher J. Conselice,
- Jose M. Diego,
- Adi Zitrin,
- Haylee N. Archer,
- Isabel McIntyre,
- Patrick Kamieneski,
- Rolf A. Jansen,
- Jake Summers,
- Jordan C. J. D’Silva,
- Anton M. Koekemoer,
- Dan Coe,
- Simon P. Driver,
- Brenda Frye,
- Norman A. Grogin,
- Madeline A. Marshall,
- Mario Nonino,
- Nor Pirzkal,
- Aaron Robotham,
- Russell E. Ryan Jr.,
- Rafael Ortiz III,
- Scott Tompkins,
- Christopher N. A. Willmer,
- Haojing Yan,
- Benne W. Holwerda
Affiliations
- Timothy Carleton
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Timothy Ellsworth-Bowers
- ORCiD
- Lowell Observatory , 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Rogier A. Windhorst
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Seth H. Cohen
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Christopher J. Conselice
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Jose M. Diego
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC) , Avenida. Los Castros s/n. E-39005 Santander, Spain
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
- Haylee N. Archer
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]; Lowell Observatory , 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Isabel McIntyre
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Patrick Kamieneski
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Rolf A. Jansen
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Jake Summers
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Jordan C. J. D’Silva
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- Anton M. Koekemoer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Dan Coe
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) for the European Space Agency (ESA) , STScI, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Center for Astrophysical Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Simon P. Driver
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Brenda Frye
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0009, USA
- Norman A. Grogin
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Madeline A. Marshall
- ORCiD
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia; National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada
- Mario Nonino
- ORCiD
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste , Via Bazzoni 2, I-34124 Trieste, Italy
- Nor Pirzkal
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Aaron Robotham
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Russell E. Ryan Jr.
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Rafael Ortiz III
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA ; [email protected]
- Scott Tompkins
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the International Space Centre (ISC), The University of Western Australia , M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Christopher N. A. Willmer
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0009, USA
- Haojing Yan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri , Columbia, MO 65211, USA
- Benne W. Holwerda
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY 40292, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1b56
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 961,
no. 2
p. L37
Abstract
A wealth of observations have long suggested that the vast majority of isolated classical dwarf galaxies ( M _* = 10 ^7 –10 ^9 M _⊙ ) are currently star forming. However, recent observations of the large abundance of “ultra-diffuse galaxies” beyond the reach of previous large spectroscopic surveys suggest that our understanding of the dwarf galaxy population may be incomplete. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of an isolated quiescent dwarf galaxy in the nearby Universe, which was imaged as part of the JWST PEARLS Guaranteed Time Observation program. Remarkably, individual red-giant branch stars are visible in this near-IR imaging, suggesting a distance of 30 ± 4 Mpc, and a wealth of archival photometry point to an sSFR of 2 × 10 ^−11 yr ^−1 and star formation rate of 4 × 10 ^−4 M _⊙ yr ^−1 . Spectra obtained with the Lowell Discovery Telescope find a recessional velocity consistent with the Hubble Flow and >1500 km s ^−1 separated from the nearest massive galaxy in Sloan Digital Sky Survey suggesting that this galaxy was either quenched from internal mechanisms or had a very high-velocity (≳1000 km s ^−1 ) interaction with a nearby massive galaxy in the past. This analysis highlights the possibility that many nearby quiescent dwarf galaxies are waiting to be discovered and that JWST has the potential to resolve them.
Keywords
- Low surface brightness galaxies
- James Webb Space Telescope
- Dwarf galaxies
- Stellar populations
- Galaxy evolution
