A magnified compact galaxy at redshift 9.51 with strong nebular emission lines.
Hayley WilliamsPatrick L KellyWenlei ChenGabriel B BrammerAdi ZitrinTommaso TreuClaudia ScarlataAnton M KoekemoerMasamune OguriYu-Heng LinJose M DiegoMario NoninoJens HjorthDanial LangeroodiTom BroadhurstNoah RogersIsmael Perez-FournonRyan J FoleySaurabh JhaAlexei V FilippenkoLou StrolgerJustin PierelFrederick PoidevinLilan YangPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2023)
Ultraviolet light from early galaxies is thought to have ionized gas in the intergalactic medium. However, there are few observational constraints on this epoch, due to the faintness of those galaxies and the redshift of their optical light into the infrared. We report the observation, in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging, of a distant galaxy that is magnified by gravitational lensing. JWST spectroscopy of the galaxy, at rest-frame optical wavelengths, detects strong nebular emission lines due to oxygen and hydrogen. The measured redshift is z = 9.51 ± 0.01, corresponding to 510 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy has a radius of [Formula: see text] parsecs, substantially more compact than galaxies with equivalent luminosity at z ~ 6 to 8, leading to a high star formation rate surface density.