A remarkably luminous galaxy at Z = 11.1 measured with hubble space telescope grism spectroscopy

Journal Article · Thu Mar 10 04:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/129· OSTI ID:22890145

Oesch, P. A.; Dokkum, P. G. van ^[1]; Brammer, G. ^[2]; Illingworth, G. D.; Holden, B.; Magee, D. ^[3]; Bouwens, R. J.; Labbé, I.; Franx, M. ^[4]; Momcheva, I. ^[5]; Ashby, M. L. N.; Fazio, G. G.; Willner, S. P. ^[6]; Gonzalez, V. ^[7]; Skelton, R. E. ^[8]; Smit, R. ^[9]; Spitler, L. R. ^[10]; Trenti, M. ^[11]

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1. Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States)
2. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
3. UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
4. Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, NL-2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
5. Astronomy Department, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States)
6. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
7. Departmento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago (Chile)
8. South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7935 (South Africa)
9. Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)
10. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 (Australia)
11. School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, VIC (Australia)

We present Hubble WFC3/IR slitless grism spectra of a remarkably bright z ≳ 10 galaxy candidate, GN-z11, identified initially from CANDELS/GOODS-N imaging data. A significant spectroscopic continuum break is detected at λ=1.47±0.01 μm. The new grism data, combined with the photometric data, rule out all plausible lower redshift solutions for this source. The only viable solution is that this continuum break is the Lyα break redshifted to z{sub grism}=11.09{sub −0.12}{sup +0.08}, just ∼400 Myr after the Big Bang. This observation extends the current spectroscopic frontier by 150 Myr to well before the Planck (instantaneous) cosmic reionization peak at z ∼ 8.8, demonstrating that galaxy build-up was well underway early in the reionization epoch at z > 10. GN-z11 is remarkably, and unexpectedly, luminous for a galaxy at such an early time: its UV luminosity is 3× larger than L{sub ∗} measured at z ∼ 6−8. The Spitzer IRAC detections up to 4.5 μm of this galaxy are consistent with a stellar mass of ∼10{sup 9} M{sub ⊙}. This spectroscopic redshift measurement suggests that James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to similarly and easily confirm such sources at z > 10 and characterize their physical properties through detailed spectroscopy. Furthermore, WFIRST, with its wide-field near-IR imaging, would find large numbers of similar galaxies and contribute greatly to JWST's spectroscopy, if it is launched early enough to overlap with JWST.

• OSTI ID: 22890145
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 819; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
MASS
RED SHIFT
SPACE
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
STARS
TELESCOPES