JWST reveals a population of ultra-red, flattened disk galaxies at 2<z<6 previously missed by HST

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 are bright with JWST/NIRCam (4.4$\mu$m<24.5mag) and very faint or even invisible with HST ($<$1.6$\mu$m). In this Letter we focus on a dramatic and unanticipated population of physically extended galaxies ($\gtrsim$0.17''). These 12 galaxies have photometric redshifts $2<z<6$, high stellar masses $M_{\star }\gtrsim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$, and significant dust-attenuated star formation. Surprisingly, the galaxies have elongated projected axis ratios at 4.4$\mu$m, suggesting that the population is disk-dominated or prolate. Most of the galaxies appear red at all radii, suggesting significant dust attenuation throughout. We refer to these red, disky, HST-dark galaxies as Ultra-red Flattened Objects (UFOs). With $r_e$(F444W)$\sim 1-2$~kpc, the galaxies are similar in size to compact massive galaxies at $z\sim 2$ and the cores of massive galaxies and S0s at $z\sim 0$. 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.

References in corpus (39)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• Stellar Population Inference with Prospector
• The KMOS^3D Survey: design, first results, and the evolution of galaxy kinematics from 0.7<z<2.7
• A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang
• Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at $z\approx 10-12$ Revealed by JWST
• Mid-Infrared Spectral Diagnosis of Submillimeter Galaxies
• A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ~ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging
• Kiloparsec-scale dust disks in high-redshift luminous submillimeter galaxies
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Survey Description
• The Evolution of the IR Luminosity Function and Dust-obscured Star Formation in the Last 13 Billion Years
• The Constant Average Relationship between Dust-obscured Star Formation and Stellar Mass from $z=0$ to $z=2.5$
• Geometry of Star-Forming Galaxies from SDSS, 3D-HST and CANDELS
• Sub-kpc ALMA imaging of compact star-forming galaxies at z~2.5: revealing the formation of dense galactic cores in the progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• The KMOS^3D Survey: data release and final survey paper
• Half-mass radii for ~7,000 galaxies at 1.0 < z < 2.5: most of the evolution in the mass-size relation is due to color gradients
• VLA and ALMA Imaging of Intense, Galaxy-Wide Star Formation in z ~ 2 Galaxies
• Bulge-forming galaxies with an extended rotating disk at z~2
• The Intrinsic Properties of SDSS Galaxies
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: High-resolution dust continuum morphologies and the link between sub-millimetre galaxies and spheroid formation
• Unveiling the Nature of Infrared Bright, Optically Dark Galaxies with Early JWST Data
• A Massive Galaxy in its Core Formation Phase Three Billion Years After the Big Bang
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Source catalog, number counts, and prevailing compact sizes in 1.1 mm galaxies
• Structural evolution in massive galaxies at z~2
• Rest-frame near-infrared sizes of galaxies at cosmic noon: objects in JWST's mirror are smaller than they appeared
• Inferring More from Less: Prospector as a Photometric Redshift Engine in the Era of JWST
• Characterization of Two 2mm-detected Optically-Obscured Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies
• Galaxy Sizes Since $z=2$ from the Perspective of Stellar Mass Distribution within Galaxies
• Color gradients and half-mass radii of galaxies out to $z=2$ in the CANDELS/3D-HST fields: further evidence for important differences in the evolution of mass-weighted and light-weighted sizes
• Early JWST imaging reveals strong optical and NIR color gradients in galaxies at $z\sim 2$ driven mostly by dust
• Formation and settling of a disc galaxy during the last 8 billion years in a cosmological simulation
• The size-luminosity relation of lensed galaxies at $z=6-9$ in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• ALMA 1.3 mm Survey of Lensed Submillimeter Galaxies (SMGs) Selected by Herschel: Discovery of Spatially Extended SMGs and Implications
• A Submillimeter Perspective on the GOODS Fields (SUPER GOODS). V. Deep 450 Micron Imaging
• The half mass radius of MaNGA galaxies: Effect of IMF gradients
• The Hawaii SCUBA-2 Lensing Cluster Survey: Are Low-luminosity Submillimeter Galaxies Detected in the Rest-frame UV?

Cited by in corpus (36)

• JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr After the Big Bang
• UNCOVERing the extended strong lensing structures of Abell 2744 with the deepest JWST imaging
• RUBIES: a complete census of the bright and red distant Universe with JWST/NIRSpec
• Galaxy Build-up in the first 1.5 Gyr of Cosmic History: Insights from the Stellar Mass Function at $z\sim 4-9$ from JWST NIRCam Observations
• A JWST investigation into the bar fraction at redshifts 1 < z < 3
• The massive relic galaxy NGC 1277 is dark matter deficient. From dynamical models of integral-field stellar kinematics out to five effective radii
• Unveiling the hidden universe with JWST: The contribution of dust-obscured galaxies to the stellar mass function at $z\sim 3-8$
• JWST CEERS probes the role of stellar mass and morphology in obscuring galaxies
• Sub-Millimetre Galaxies with Webb: Near-Infrared Counterparts and Multi-wavelength Morphology
• Formation of Galactic Disks I: Why Did the Milky Way's Disk Form Unusually Early?
• ALMA reveals a stable rotating gas disk in a paradoxical low-mass, ultra-dusty galaxy at z = 4.274
• The dawn of disks: unveiling the turbulent ionised gas kinematics of the galaxy population at $z\sim 4-6$ with JWST/NIRCam grism spectroscopy
• Redshifting galaxies from DESI to JWST CEERS: Correction of biases and uncertainties in quantifying morphology
• Taking the Milky Way for a spin: disc formation in the ARTEMIS simulations
• Galaxy morphologies at cosmic noon with JWST: A foundation for exploring gas transport with bars and spiral arms
• JWST's PEARLS: resolved study of the stellar and dust components in starburst galaxies at cosmic noon
• The robustness in identifying and quantifying high-redshift bars using JWST observations
• JWST PRIMER: A lack of outshining in four normal z =4-6 galaxies from the ALMA-CRISTAL Survey
• A Giant Disk Galaxy Two Billion Years After The Big Bang
• Dynamical modelling and origin of gas turbulence in z $\sim$ 4.5 galaxies
• JADES Ultra-red Flattened Objects: Morphologies and Spatial Gradients in Color and Stellar Populations
• Evolution of the Sérsic Index up to z=2.5 from JWST and HST
• Galactic disc heating by density granulation in fuzzy dark matter simulations
• NOEMA reveals the true nature of luminous red JWST z>10 galaxy candidates
• Deciphering the Milky Way disc formation time encrypted in the bar chrono-kinematics
• A grand-design spiral galaxy 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang with JWST
• Through Thick and Thin: The Cosmic Evolution of Disk Scale Height
• Beyond the stars: Linking H$\alpha$ sizes, kinematics, and star formation in galaxies at $z\approx 4-6$ with JWST grism surveys and $\text{geko}$
• A Morphology Catalog of Galaxies in CEERS: Evolution in the Size and Color Gradients of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn
• "Dust Giant": Extended and Clumpy Star-Formation in a Massive Dusty Galaxy at $z=1.38$
• Strength in Numbers: Red Galaxies Bolster the Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density at z > 3
• Compact dust-obscured star-formation and the origin of the galaxy bimodality
• SEMPER I. Radio Predictions for Star-Forming Galaxies at $0<z<5$
• A physically-motivated template set for high-z galaxy SED fitting
• Can AI Dream of Unseen Galaxies? Conditional Diffusion Model for Galaxy Morphology Augmentation
• JWST NIRSpec Spectral Standards for M, L, and T Dwarfs and Subdwarfs