A luminous and young galaxy at z=12.33 revealed by a JWST/MIRI detection of Hα and [OIII]

Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a surprising population of bright galaxies in the very early universe (<500 Myrs after the Big Bang) that is hard to explain with conventional galaxy formation models and whose physical properties remain to be fully understood. Insight into their internal physics is best captured through nebular lines but, at these early epochs, the brightest of these spectral features are redshifted into the mid-infrared and remain elusive. Using the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument, MIRI, here we present the first detection of Hα and doubly-ionized oxygen ([OIII]5007AA) at z>10. These detections place the bright galaxy GHZ2/GLASS-z12 at z=12.33+/-0.04, making it the most distant astronomical object with direct spectroscopic detection of these lines. These observations provide key insights into the conditions of this primeval, luminous galaxy, which shows hard ionizing conditions rarely seen in the local Universe likely driven by compact and young (~30Myr) burst of star formation. Its oxygen-to-hydrogen abundance is close to a tenth of the solar value, indicating a rapid metal enrichment. This study confirms the unique conditions of this remarkably bright and distant galaxy and the huge potential of mid-IR observations to characterize these objects.

Published in Nature Astronomy on 30 October 2024 (this represents the authors' submitted version)

References in corpus (41)

• PyNeb: a new tool for analyzing emission lines. I. Code description and validation of results
• The stellar mass assembly of galaxies from z=0 to z=4. Analysis of a sample selected in the rest-frame near-infrared with Spitzer
• Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at $z\approx 10-12$ Revealed by JWST
• The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning
• JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-$\alpha$ emission and possible enhanced nitrogen abundance in a $z=10.60$ luminous galaxy
• The Mass-Metallicity and the Fundamental Metallicity Relation revisited on a fully Te-based abundance scale for galaxies
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. III: Galaxy candidates at z$\sim$9-15
• The GLASS James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Science Program. I. Survey Design and Release Plans
• Emission-line Diagnostics of Low Metallicity AGN
• Spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at $z\sim 14$
• On the Stellar Populations of Galaxies at z=9-11: The Growth of Metals and Stellar Mass at Early Times
• Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early universe
• JADES: Probing interstellar medium conditions at $z\sim 5.5-9.5$ with ultra-deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy
• CEERS Spectroscopic Confirmation of NIRCam-Selected z > 8 Galaxy Candidates with JWST/NIRSpec: Initial Characterization of their Properties
• EIGER II. first spectroscopic characterisation of the young stars and ionised gas associated with strong H$\beta$ and [OIII] line-emission in galaxies at z=5-7 with JWST
• Most of the photons that reionized the Universe came from dwarf galaxies
• X-ray binaries as the origin of nebular HeII emission in low-metallicity star-forming galaxies
• Diagnostics for PopIII galaxies and Direct Collapse Black Holes in the early universe
• The Physical Conditions of Emission-Line Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn from JWST/NIRSpec Spectroscopy in the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations
• EMPRESS. V. Metallicity Diagnostics of Galaxies over 12+log(O/H)=~6.9-8.9 Established by a Local Galaxy Census: Preparing for JWST Spectroscopy
• UNCOVER: Illuminating the Early Universe -- JWST/NIRSpec Confirmation of $z>12$ Galaxies
• The COSMOS [OII] Survey: Evolution of Electron Density with Star Formation Rate
• JADES: Carbon enrichment 350 Myr after the Big Bang in a gas-rich galaxy
• Morphologies of Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 9$ Uncovered by JWST/NIRCam Imaging: Cosmic Size Evolution and an Identification of an Extremely Compact Bright Galaxy at $z\sim 12$
• The Effects of Stellar Population and Gas Covering Fraction on the Emergent Lyman Alpha Emission of High-Redshift Galaxies
• A JWST/NIRSpec Exploration of the Connection between Ionization Parameter, Electron Density, and Star-Formation-Rate Surface Density in z=2.7-6.3 Galaxies
• The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. III. Strong lensing model of Abell 2744 and its infalling regions
• Deep ALMA redshift search of a z~12 GLASS-JWST galaxy candidate
• Identification of a transition from stochastic to secular star formation around $z=9$ with JWST
• The First JWST Spectral Energy Distribution of a Y dwarf
• Astraeus V: The emergence and evolution of metallicity scaling relations during the Epoch of Reionization
• ASTRODEEP-JWST: NIRCam-HST multiband photometry and redshifts for half a million sources in six extragalactic deep fields
• Nebular emission from young stellar populations including binary stars
• The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. II. Stage I release of NIRCam imaging and catalogs in the Abell 2744 region
• An upper limit on [OIII] 88 $\mu$m and 1.2 mm continuum emission from a JWST $z\approx 12-13$ galaxy candidate with ALMA
• Spatially-resolved H$\alpha$ and ionizing photon production efficiency in the lensed galaxy MACS1149-JD1 at a redshift of 9.11
• Evidence for Very Massive Stars in extremely UV-bright star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2.2-3.6$
• The evolution of the SFR and Sigma-SFR of galaxies in cosmic morning (4 < z < 10)
• CLASH: Extending galaxy strong lensing to small physical scales with distant sources highly-magnified by galaxy cluster members
• ALMA Observation of a $z\gtrsim 10$ Galaxy Candidate Discovered with JWST
• CEERS: Increasing Scatter along the Star-Forming Main Sequence Indicates Early Galaxies Form in Bursts

Cited by in corpus (18)

• JADES: The star-formation and chemical enrichment history of a luminous galaxy at z~9.43 probed by ultra-deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy
• Photometric detection at $7.7\mu \mathrm{m}$ of a galaxy beyond redshift $14$ with JWST/MIRI
• The Dual Nature of GHZ9: Coexisting Active Galactic Nuclei and Star Formation Activity in a Remote X-ray Source at z = 10.145
• Can primordial black holes explain the overabundance of bright super-early galaxies?
• ALMA observations of super-early galaxies: attenuation-free model predictions
• New Ionization Models and the Shocking Nitrogen Excess at z > 5
• Beyond the first galaxies primordial black holes shine
• The ionizing photon production efficiency of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 4-10$
• JWST spectroscopic confirmation of the Cosmic Gems arc at z=9.625 -- Insights into the small scale structure of a post-burst system
• Unveiling the Cosmic Gems Arc at $z\sim 10$ with JWST NIRCam
• The Pristine survey: XXVII. The extremely metal-poor stream C-19 stretches over more than 100 degrees
• The [NII] 205 $\mu$m line emission from high-z SMGs and QSOs
• Amaryllis: a digital twin of the earliest galaxies in the Universe
• Quantifying the detection likelihood of faint peaks in interferometric data through jackknifing: Test application on finding $z>10$ galaxy candidates
• Dark Secrets of Baryons: Illuminating Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions with JWST
• On the missing dust of super-early galaxies: Supernova blowout and gas-dust venting in Blue Monsters
• Signatures of Exploding Supermassive PopIII Stars at High Redshift in JWST, EUCLID and Roman Space Telescope
• Out of oxygen: Extremely metal-poor galaxy candidates identified at $2.5<z<6.5$ with deep JADES medium-band imaging