Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early Universe

Nature volume 622, pages 707–711 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

During the first 500 million years of cosmic history, the first stars and galaxies formed, seeding the Universe with heavy elements and eventually reionizing the intergalactic medium1,2,3. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered a surprisingly high abundance of candidates for early star-forming galaxies, with distances (redshifts, z), estimated from multiband photometry, as large as z ≈ 16, far beyond pre-JWST limits4,5,6,7,8,9. Although such photometric redshifts are generally robust, they can suffer from degeneracies and occasionally catastrophic errors. Spectroscopic measurements are required to validate these sources and to reliably quantify physical properties that can constrain galaxy formation models and cosmology10. Here we present JWST spectroscopy that confirms redshifts for two very luminous galaxies with z > 11, and also demonstrates that another candidate with suggested z ≈ 16 instead has z = 4.9, with an unusual combination of nebular line emission and dust reddening that mimics the colours expected for much more distant objects. These results reinforce evidence for the early, rapid formation of remarkably luminous galaxies while also highlighting the necessity of spectroscopic verification. The large abundance of bright, early galaxies may indicate shortcomings in current galaxy formation models or deviations from physical properties (such as the stellar initial mass function) that are generally believed to hold at later times.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Photometric redshift probability density function for the primary high-z candidates.
Fig. 2: Images and spectra of the confirmed z > 11 galaxies.
Fig. 3: NIRSpec spectrum of zphot ≈ 16 candidate CEERS-93316.
Fig. 4: Spectral energy distributions of the three main sources reported.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The JWST NIRSpec data are available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST; http://archive.stsci.edu), under programme ID 2750. The CEERS JWST imaging data are available from MAST under programme ID 1345. Reduced NIRCam data products from the CEERS team are available at https://ceers.github.io. The NOEMA data is part of programme D22AC, which will be available at http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-3?-source=B/iram/noema.

Code availability

JWST NIRSpec data were reduced using the JWST pipeline (v.1.8.5, reference mapping 1088; https://github.com/spacetelescope/jwst). NIRSpec data inspection was performed using the Mosviz visualization tool43 (https://jdaviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mosviz/index.html). Photometric redshifts were measured using EAZY39 (https://github.com/gbrammer/eazy-photoz/). Emission line profiles were fitted and line fluxes measured using LIME68 (https://lime-stable.readthedocs.io). Three different codes were used for stellar population synthesis modelling of galaxy spectro-photometric data: Synthesizer66,67; Bagpipes54 (https://bagpipes.readthedocs.io); and Cigale60,61 (https://cigale.lam.fr). For this paper, we use a non-public version of Cigale that fits photometric and spectroscopic data together.

References

  1. Schneider, R., Ferrara, A., Natarajan, P. & Omukai, K. First stars, very massive black holes, and metals. Astrophys. J. 571, 30–39 (2002).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wise, J. H., Turk, M. J., Norman, M. L. & Abel, T. The birth of a galaxy: primordial metal enrichment and stellar populations. Astrophys. J. 745, 50 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jaacks, J., Finkelstein, S. L. & Bromm, V. Legacy of star formation in the pre-reionization universe. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 488, 2202–2221 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Castellano, M. et al. Early results from GLASS-JWST. III. Galaxy candidates at z 9-15. Astrophys. J. Lett. 938, L15 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Finkelstein, S. L. et al. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away: a candidate z ~ 12 galaxy in early JWST CEERS imaging. Astrophys. J. Lett. 940, L55 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Donnan, C. T. et al. The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ~ 8–15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 518, 6011–6040 (2023).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Harikane, Y. et al. A comprehensive study of galaxies at z ~ 9–16 found in the early JWST data: ultraviolet luminosity functions and cosmic star formation history at the pre-reionization epoch. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 265, 5 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Atek, H. et al. Revealing galaxy candidates out to z ~ 16 with JWST observations of the lensing cluster SMACS0723. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 519, 1201–1220 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Finkelstein, S. L. et al. CEERS key paper. I. An early look into the first 500 Myr of galaxy formation with JWST. Astrophys. J. Lett. 946, L13 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Boylan-Kolchin, M. Stress testing ΛCDM with high-redshift galaxy candidates. Nat. Astron. 7, 731–735 (2023).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Rieke, M. J. et al. Performance of NIRCam on JWST in flight. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 135, 028001 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Bagley, M. B. et al. CEERS Epoch 1 NIRCam imaging: reduction methods and simulations enabling early JWST science results. Astrophys. J. Lett. 946, L12 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Robertson, B. E. et al. Identification and properties of intense star-forming galaxies at redshifts z > 10. Nat. Astron. 7, 611–621 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Curtis-Lake, E. et al. Spectroscopic confirmation of four metal-poor galaxies at z = 10.3–13.2. Nat. Astron. 7, 622–632 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Bouwens, R. et al. UV luminosity density results at z > 8 from the first JWST/NIRCam fields: limitations of early data sets and the need for spectroscopy. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 523, 1009–1035 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Naidu, R. P. et al. Schrodinger’s galaxy candidate: puzzlingly luminous at z ≈ 17, or dusty/quenched at z ≈ 5? Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.02794 (2022).

  17. Pérez-González, P. G. et al. CEERS key paper. IV. A triality in the nature of HST-dark galaxies. Astrophys. J. Lett. 946, L16 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Zavala, J. A. et al. Dusty starbursts masquerading as ultra-high redshift galaxies in JWST CEERS observations. Astrophys. J. Lett. 943, L9 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Jakobsen, P. et al. The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope. I. Overview of the instrument and its capabilities. Astron. Astrophys. 661, A80 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Arrabal Haro, P. et al. Spectroscopic confirmation of CEERS NIRCam-selected galaxies at z ≃ 8–10. Astrophys. J. Lett. 951, L22 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Harikane, Y. et al. Pure spectroscopic constraints on UV luminosity functions and cosmic star formation history from 25 galaxies at zspec = 8.61−13.20 confirmed with JWST/NIRSpec. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06658 (2023).

  22. Fujimoto, S. et al. CEERS spectroscopic confirmation of NIRCam-selected z ≳ 8 galaxy candidates with JWST/NIRSpec: initial characterization of their properties. Astrophys. J. Lett. 949, L25 (2023).

  23. Roberts-Borsani, G. et al. The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST. Nature 618, 480–483 (2023).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Williams, H. et al. A magnified compact galaxy at redshift 9.51 with strong nebular emission lines. Science 380, 416–420 (2023).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Tacchella, S. et al. JADES Imaging of GN-z11: revealing the morphology and environment of a luminous galaxy 430 Myr after the Big Bang. Astrophys. J. 952, 74 (2023).

  26. Barrufet, L. et al. Unveiling the nature of infrared bright, optically dark galaxies with early JWST data. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 522, 449–456 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Kocevski, D. D. et al. Hidden little monsters: spectroscopic identification of low-mass, broad-line AGNs at z > 5 with CEERS. Astrophys. J. Lett. 954, L4 (2023).

  28. Matthee, J. et al. Little red dots: an abundant population of faint AGN at z ~ 5 revealed by the EIGER and FRESCO JWST surveys. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.05448 (2023).

  29. Bunker, A. J. et al. JADES NIRSpec spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-α emission and possible enhanced nitrogen abundance in a z = 10.60 luminous galaxy. Astron. Astrophys. (in the press); preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07256 (2023).

  30. Hsiao, T. et al. JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy of the triply-lensed z = 10.17 galaxy MACS0647 − JD. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03042 (2023).

  31. Leung, G. C. K. et al. NGDEEP Epoch 1: the faint-end of the luminosity function at z ~ 9–12 from ultra-deep JWST imaging. Astrophys. J. Lett. (in the press); preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06244 (2023).

  32. Ferrara, A., Pallottini, A. & Dayal, P. On the stunning abundance of super-early, luminous galaxies revealed by JWST. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 522, 3986–3991 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Mason, C. A., Trenti, M. & Treu, T. The brightest galaxies at cosmic dawn. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 521, 497–503 (2023).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Bromm, V., Kudritzki, R. P. & Loeb, A. Generic spectrum and ionization efficiency of a heavy initial mass function for the first stars. Astrophys. J. 552, 464–472 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Sharda, P. & Krumholz, M. R. When did the initial mass function become bottom-heavy? Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 509, 1959–1984 (2022).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Larson, R. B. Early star formation and the evolution of the stellar initial mass function in galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 301, 569–581 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. Planck Collaboration. Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters. Astron. Astrophys. 641, A6 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Oke, J. B. & Gunn, J. E. Secondary standard stars for absolute spectrophotometry. Astrophys. J. 266, 713–717 (1983).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Brammer, G. B., van Dokkum, P. G. & Coppi, P. EAZY: a fast, public photometric redshift code. Astrophys. J. 686, 1503–1513 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. Larson, R. L. et al. Spectral templates optimal for selecting galaxies at z > 8 with JWST. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.10035 (2022).

  41. CASA Team et al. CASA, the Common Astronomy Software Applications for radio astronomy. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 134, 114501 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  42. Ferruit, P. et al. The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope. II. Multi-object spectroscopy (MOS). Astron. Astrophys. 661, A81 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. JDADF Developers et al. Jdaviz. Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/7504710 (2023).

  44. Storey, P. J., Sochi, T. & Badnell, N. R. Collision strengths for nebular [O III] optical and infrared lines. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 441, 3028–3039 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Dijkstra, M. Lyα emitting galaxies as a probe of reionisation. Publ. Astron. Soc. Aus. 31, 40 (2014).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  46. Finkelstein, S. L. et al. Conditions for reionizing the Universe with a low galaxy ionizing photon escape fraction. Astrophys. J. 879, 36 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Heintz, K. et al. Extreme damped Lyman-α absorption in young star-forming galaxies at z = 9–11. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00647 (2023).

  48. Umeda, H. et al. JWST measurements of neutral hydrogen fractions and ionized bubble sizes at z = 7–12 obtained with Lyα damping wing absorptions in 26 bright continuum galaxies. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00487 (2023).

  49. Cardelli, J. A., Clayton, G. C. & Mathis, J. S. The relationship between infrared, optical, and ultraviolet extinction. Astrophys. J. 345, 245 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Kennicutt, R. C. Jr Star formation in galaxies along the Hubble Sequence. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 36, 189–232 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  51. Chabrier, G. Galactic stellar and substellar initial mass function. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 115, 763–795 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  52. Pannella, M. et al. GOODS-Herschel: star formation, dust attenuation, and the FIR-radio correlation on the main sequence of star-forming galaxies up to z ≃ 4. Astrophys. J. 807, 141 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  53. Shapley, A. E., Sanders, R. L., Reddy, N. A., Topping, M. W. & Brammer, G. B. JWST/NIRSpec Balmer-line measurements of star formation and dust attenuation at z – 3–6. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03241 (2023).

  54. Carnall, A. C., McLure, R. J., Dunlop, J. S. & Davé, R. Inferring the star formation histories of massive quiescent galaxies with BAGPIPES: evidence for multiple quenching mechanisms. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 480, 4379–4401 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. Bruzual, G. & Charlot, S. Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 344, 1000–1028 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  56. Kroupa, P. On the variation of the initial mass function. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 322, 231–246 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  57. Ferland, G. J. et al. The 2017 release of Cloudy. Rev. Mex. Astron. Astrofis. 53, 385–438 (2017).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  58. Salim, S., Boquien, M. & Lee, J. C. Dust attenuation curves in the local universe: demographics and new laws for star-forming galaxies and high-redshift analogs. Astrophys. J. 859, 11 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  59. Carnall, A. C. et al. A first look at the SMACS0723 JWST ERO: spectroscopic redshifts, stellar masses, and star-formation histories. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 518, L45–L50 (2023).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Boquien, M. et al. CIGALE: a Python code investigating galaxy emission. Astron. Astrophys. 622, A103 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Burgarella, D., Buat, V. & Iglesias-Páramo, J. Star formation and dust attenuation properties in galaxies from a statistical ultraviolet-to-far-infrared analysis. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 360, 1413–1425 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  62. Stanway, E. R. & Eldridge, J. J. Re-evaluating old stellar populations. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 479, 75–93 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Calzetti, D. et al. The dust content and opacity of actively star-forming galaxies. Astrophys. J. 533, 682–695 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  64. Pei, Y. C. Interstellar dust from the Milky Way to the Magellanic Clouds. Astrophys. J. 395, 130 (1992).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  65. Charlot, S. & Fall, S. M. A simple model for the absorption of starlight by dust in galaxies. Astrophys. J. 539, 718–731 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Pérez-González, P. G. et al. Stellar populations in local star-forming galaxies—I. Data and modeling procedure. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 338, 508–524 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  67. Pérez-González, P. G. et al. The stellar mass assembly of galaxies from z = 0 to z = 4: analysis of a sample selected in the rest-frame near-infrared with Spitzer. Astrophys. J. 675, 234–261 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  68. Fernández, V. The resolved chemical composition of the starburst dwarf galaxy CGCG007-025: direct method versus photoionization model fitting. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 520, 3576–3590 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

P.A.H., M.D., S.L.F., J.S.K. and C.J.P. acknowledge support from NASA through the STScI ERS award JWST-ERS-1345 and the JWST-GO-2750 award. S.L.F. acknowledges support from the University of Texas at Austin. P.G.P.-G. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 through grant PGC2018-093499-B-I00. A.C.C. acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust via a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. C.T.D., D.J.M., R.J.M. and J.S.D. acknowledge the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. F.C. acknowledges support from a UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee Grant (grant reference EP/X021025/1). M.H.C. acknowledges financial support from the State Research Agency (AEIMCINN) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the grants ‘Galaxy Evolution with Artificial Intelligence’ with reference PGC2018-100852-A-I00 and ‘BASALT’ with reference PID2021-126838NB-I00. V.F. acknowledges support from ANID through FONDECYT Postdoc 2020 project 3200340. R.A. acknowledges support from ANID through FONDECYT Regular 1202007. This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the STScI, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-03127. This work is partially based on observations carried out under project number D22AC with the IRAM NOEMA Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). R.L.L. and K.C. are both NSF Graduate Fellows. T.A.H. is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Pablo Arrabal Haro & Mark Dickinson

  2. Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Steven L. Finkelstein, Seiji Fujimoto, Rebecca L. Larson, Micaela B. Bagley, Caitlin M. Casey & Katherine Chworowsky

  3. Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA

    Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe & Rebecca L. Larson

  4. Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK

    Callum T. Donnan, Adam C. Carnall, Fergus Cullen, James S. Dunlop, Derek J. McLeod & Ross J. McLure

  5. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM Marseille, Marseille, France

    Denis Burgarella, Véronique Buat & Lise-Marie Seillé

  6. Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinar en Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Vital Fernández & Ricardo O. Amorín

  7. Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen, Denmark

    Seiji Fujimoto

  8. Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Seiji Fujimoto

  9. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Intae Jung, Henry C. Ferguson, Anton M. Koekemoer, Ray A. Lucas & Norbert Pirzkal

  10. IRAM, Domaine Universitaire, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France

    Melanie Krips

  11. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Casey Papovich

  12. George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Casey Papovich

  13. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain

    Pablo G. Pérez-González

  14. Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Ricardo O. Amorín

  15. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Seth H. Cohen

  16. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Mauro Giavalisco

  17. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain

    Marc Huertas-Company

  18. Universidad de la Laguna, La Laguna, Spain

    Marc Huertas-Company

  19. Université Paris-Cité, LERMA - Observatoire de Paris, PSL, Paris, France

    Marc Huertas-Company

  20. Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Taylor A. Hutchison

  21. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA

    Dale D. Kocevski

  22. Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Jonathan R. Trump

  23. MMT/Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Benjamin J. Weiner

  24. Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Stephen M. Wilkins

  25. Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Stephen M. Wilkins

  26. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

    Jorge A. Zavala

Authors
  1. Pablo Arrabal Haro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Dickinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Steven L. Finkelstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Callum T. Donnan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Denis Burgarella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Adam C. Carnall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Fergus Cullen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. James S. Dunlop
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Vital Fernández
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Seiji Fujimoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Intae Jung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Melanie Krips
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Rebecca L. Larson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Casey Papovich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Pablo G. Pérez-González
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Ricardo O. Amorín
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Micaela B. Bagley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Véronique Buat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Caitlin M. Casey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Katherine Chworowsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. Seth H. Cohen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. Henry C. Ferguson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. Mauro Giavalisco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  25. Marc Huertas-Company
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  26. Taylor A. Hutchison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  27. Dale D. Kocevski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  28. Anton M. Koekemoer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  29. Ray A. Lucas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  30. Derek J. McLeod
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  31. Ross J. McLure
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  32. Norbert Pirzkal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  33. Lise-Marie Seillé
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  34. Jonathan R. Trump
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  35. Benjamin J. Weiner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  36. Stephen M. Wilkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  37. Jorge A. Zavala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

P.A.H. led the JWST NIRSpec DDT observing proposal, the observation design, the data reduction and contributed extensively to text and figures. M.D., S.L.F. and J.S.K. contributed extensively to spectroscopic target selection and prioritization, with extensive input from many authors including C.T.D., A.C.C., F.C., J.S.D., S.F., C.P., P.G.P.-G., D.D.K., D.J.M., R.J.M. and J.A.Z. Galaxy redshifts were measured primarily by P.A.H., V.F., S.L.F., P.G.P.-G., S.F., I.J. and R.L.L. R.L.L. and V.F. measured emission line properties. F.C. and J.R.T. analysed implications from the emission lines. D.B., A.C.C., P.G.P.-G. and L.-M.S. modelled and interpreted the spectral energy distributions of the galaxies. S.F. led the NOEMA observing programme with contributions to planning from several coauthors including J.A.Z. and C.M.C., and M.K. contributed to NOEMA execution and data analysis. M.D. and S.L.F. led the drafting of the paper text with contributions to text, figures, editing and formatting by P.A.H., S.F., C.P., P.G.P.-G., H.C.F., M.G., J.A.Z., T.A.H., K.C. and other authors. M.B.B. led data reduction for the CEERS NIRCam observations with extensive contributions by A.M.K. and H.C.F., S.H.C. and N.P. contributed to the NIRSpec proposal, and R.O.A., V.B., M.H.C., D.D.K., R.A.L. and B.J.W. (as well as many authors above) contributed to the discussion, analysis and interpretation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pablo Arrabal Haro.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 NOEMA 1.1-mm contours overlaid on the NIRCam 6″ × 6″ RGB colour image (R: F444W, G: F356W, B: F200W) around CEERS-93316 (MSA ID 0) pointed by the white arrow.

North is up and east is left. The magenta contours are drawn at 1σ intervals from ± 2σ to ± 9σ. CEERS-93316 is undetected at 1.1 mm, while robust emission from a nearby source is likely responsible for a previously reported tentative SCUBA2 detection18.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Montage of images of the galaxies targeted for MSA spectroscopy presented here.

Each frame shows a 3″ × 3″ stamp centred on the location of each galaxy, with the ID labelled. The red-green-blue image for each galaxy corresponds to the JWST/NIRCam F444W, F356W and F277W, respectively, rotated with north up and east to the left. The rectangles show the approximate location of the JWST/NIRSpec MSA slit positions.

Extended Data Fig. 3 2D and 1D NIRSpec spectra of six high-z candidates.

Features and spectroscopic redshifts are indicated, except for MSA ID 69 where we cannot determine a redshift with confidence. The shaded grey area corresponds to 1σ uncertainties.

Extended Data Fig. 4 2D and 1D NIRSpec spectra of CEERS-93316, CEERS-DSFG-1 and two other galaxies at similar redshifts z ≈ 4.9, highlighting a potential overdensity in the field at this redshift.

The two horizontal yellow lines in the 2D spectra indicate the extraction aperture used to measure the 1D spectra. Dotted purple vertical lines indicate the location of several emission lines when present. The shaded grey area corresponds to 1σ uncertainties in the 1D spectra and the zero flux level is marked by a dashed black horizontal line.

Extended Data Table 1 Summary of spectroscopically confirmed galaxies
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Emission line fluxes and limits
Full size table
Extended Data Table 3 Summary of galaxy physical properties
Full size table

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Arrabal Haro, P., Dickinson, M., Finkelstein, S.L. et al. Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early Universe. Nature 622, 707–711 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06521-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06521-7

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing