A massive galaxy that formed its stars at z ≈ 11

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Glazebrook, Karl; Nanayakkara, Themiya; Schreiber, Corentin; Lagos, Claudia; Kawinwanichakij, Lalitwadee; Jacobs, Colin; Chittenden, Harry; Brammer, Gabriel; Kacprzak, Glenn G.; Labbe, Ivo; Marchesini, Danilo; Marsan, Z. Cemile; Oesch, Pascal A.; Papovich, Casey; Remus, Rhea-Silvia; Tran, Kim-Vy H.; Esdaile, James; Chandro-Gomez, Angel
• 署名单位: Swinburne University of Technology; University of Copenhagen; Niels Bohr Institute; University of Western Australia; Tufts University; York University - Canada; University of Geneva; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; University of Munich; University of New South Wales Sydney; Smithsonian Institution
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-4437
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07191-9
• 发表日期: 2024-04-11
• 关键词: stellar; population; project

摘要

The formation of galaxies by gradual hierarchical co-assembly of baryons and cold dark matter halos is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics(1,2) and predicts a strong decline in the number of massive galaxies at early cosmic times(3,4,5). Extremely massive quiescent galaxies (stellar masses of more than 10(11) M-circle dot) have now been observed as early as 1-2 billion years after the Big Bang(6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13). These galaxies are extremely constraining on theoretical models, as they had formed 300-500 Myr earlier, and only some models can form massive galaxies this early(12,14). Here we report on the spectroscopic observations with the JWST of a massive quiescent galaxy ZF-UDS-7329 at redshift 3.205 +/- 0.005. It has eluded deep ground-based spectroscopy(8), it is significantly redder than is typical and its spectrum reveals features typical of much older stellar populations. Detailed modelling shows that its stellar population formed around 1.5 billion years earlier in time (z approximate to 11) at an epoch when dark matter halos of sufficient hosting mass had not yet assembled in the standard scenario(4,5). This observation may indicate the presence of undetected populations of early galaxies and the possibility of significant gaps in our understanding of early stellar populations, galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter.