A magnified young galaxy from about 500 million years after the Big Bang

Abstract

The early Universe at redshift z∼6-11 marks the reionization of the intergalactic medium, following the formation of the first generation of stars. However, those young galaxies at a cosmic age of < ∼ 500 million years (Myr, at z > ∼ 10) remain largely unexplored as they are at or beyond the sensitivity limits of current large telescopes. Gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters enables the detection of high-redshift galaxies that are fainter than what otherwise could be found in the deepest images of the sky. We report the discovery of an object found in the multi-band observations of the cluster MACS1149+22 that has a high probability of being a gravitationally magnified object from the early universe. The object is firmly detected (12σ) in the two reddest bands of HST/WFC3, and not detected below 1.2 µm, matching the characteristics of z∼9 objects. We derive a robust photometric redshift of z = 9.6 ± 0.2, corresponding to a cosmic age of 490 ± 15 Myr (i.e., 3.6% of the age of the Universe).The large number of bands used to derive the redshift estimate make it one of the most accurate estimates ever obtained for such a distant object. The significant magnification by cluster lensing (a factor of ∼15) allows us to analyze the object's ultra-violet and optical luminosity in its rest-2 frame, thus enabling us to constrain on its stellar mass, star-formation rate and age. If the galaxy is indeed at such a large redshift, then its age is less than 200 Myr (at the 95% confidence level), implying a formation redshift of z f < ∼ 14. The object is the first z>9 candidate that is bright enough for detailed spectroscopic studies with JWST, demonstrating the unique potential of galaxy cluster fields for finding highly magnified, intrinsically faint galaxies at the highest redshifts.Observational cosmology has established that the age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years, and the reionization of the vast intergalactic medium (IGM) started around redshift z ∼ 11, 1 as the result of radiation from the first generation of stars. The task of probing the most distant Universe is progressively challenging: While more than 10 5 quasars have been found, only one is at z > 7; 2 while thousands of gamma-ray burst events have been recorded, only one 3 is confirmed at z=8.3; and while thousands of galaxy candidates have been found at z ∼ 6, only one has been reported at z ∼ 10, 4 which is based on a single-band detection. Galaxies at z ∼ 10 are expected to be at a magnitude of ∼ 29 (in the AB system, used hereafter) 4, 5 , near the detection limits of the deepest fields observed by Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and beyond the spectroscopic capability of even the next generation of large telescopes.In this Letter we report the discovery of a gravitationally lensed source whose most likely redshift is z ∼ 9.6. The source, hereafter called MACS1149-JD1, is selected from a near-infrared detection image at significance of 22σ. MACS1149-JD1 has a unique flux distribution characterized by a) no detection at Galaxy clusters are the largest r...

Constraints on the star formation efficiency of galaxies during the epoch of reionization

“…et al 2015; orange squares, CANDELS/GOODS/HUDF, Oesch et al 2014; blue triangles, CLASH cluster searches, Zheng et al 2012, Coe et al 2013. The empty blue square shows the integrated star formation rate from Atek et al (2015) at z = 7, which is consistent with all of our models.…”

SPITZER ULTRA FAINT SURVEY PROGRAM (SURFS UP). II. IRAC-DETECTED LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES AT 6 ≲ z ≲ 10 BEHIND STRONG-LENSING CLUSTERS

“…e Instruments we used for spectroscopy: D = DEIMOS, M = MOSFIRE, G = HST grism from the GLASS program (Schmidt et al 2014;Treu et al 2015). f First reported by Zheng et al (2012). g Also reported by Bradley et al (2014).…”

“Refsdal” Meets Popper: Comparing Predictions of the Re-Appearance of the Multiply Imaged Supernova Behind MACSJ1149.5+2223

“…This procedure has been shown to be very effective in locating multiple images in many clusters (e.g., Zitrin et al , 2012bZitrin et al , 2013Zitrin et al , 2015, even without any multiple images initially used as input (Zitrin et al 2012a). Most of the multiple images in MACSJ1149.5+2223 that were found by Zheng et al (2012) were identified with this method.…”