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Finding Peas in the Early Universe with JWST

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [6]
  1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); The Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, DC (United States)
  3. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  4. Univ. of Cincinnati, OH (United States)
  5. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
  6. Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States)

The Early Release Observations (EROs) of JWST beautifully demonstrate the promise of JWST in characterizing the universe at Cosmic Dawn. We analyze the Near Infrared Spectrograph ERO spectra of three z ~ 8 galaxies to determine their metallicities, gas temperatures, and ionization. These galaxies offer the first opportunity to understand the physical properties of Epoch-of-Reionization galaxies through detailed rest-optical emission-line spectroscopy. We show that these objects have metal abundances $$12+\mathrm{log}[{\rm{O}}/{\rm{H}}]\,\approx$$ 6.9–8.3, based on both the Te method and on a recent calibration of the R23 metallicity indicator. Since the spectra are some of the earliest science data from JWST, we compare several line ratios with values expected from robust physics, to validate our measurement procedures. We compare the abundances and emission-line ratios to a nearby sample of Green Pea galaxies—a population of nearby emission-line galaxies whose UV properties resemble Epoch-of-Reionization galaxies, and which often have large Lyman continuum escape fractions. The JWST data show striking further similarities between these high-redshift galaxies and nearby Green Peas. The z ~ 8 galaxies span the metallicity range covered by Green Peas. They also show the compact morphology that is typical of emission-line-dominated galaxies at all redshifts. Based on these similarities with Green Peas, it is likely that these are the first rest-optical spectra of galaxies that are actively driving cosmological reionization.

Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
2425172
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 942; ISSN 2041-8205
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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