TY - JOUR
T1 - JADES-GS-z14-1
T2 - A Compact, Faint Galaxy at $z\approx14$ with Weak Metal Lines from Extremely Deep JWST MIRI, NIRCam, and NIRSpec Observations
AU - Wu, Zihao
AU - Eisenstein, Daniel J.
AU - Johnson, Benjamin D.
AU - Jakobsen, Peter
AU - Alberts, Stacey
AU - Arribas, Santiago
AU - Baker, William M.
AU - Bunker, Andrew J.
AU - Carniani, Stefano
AU - Charlot, Stéphane
AU - Chevallard, Jacopo
AU - Curti, Mirko
AU - Curtis-Lake, Emma
AU - D'Eugenio, Francesco
AU - Hainline, Kevin
AU - Helton, Jakob M.
AU - Hsiao, Tiger Yu-Yang
AU - Ji, Xihan
AU - Ji, Zhiyuan
AU - Looser, Tobias J.
AU - Rieke, George
AU - Rinaldi, Pierluigi
AU - Robertson, Brant
AU - Scholtz, Jan
AU - Sun, Fengwu
AU - Tacchella, Sandro
AU - Trussler, James A. A.
AU - Willmer, Christopher N. A.
AU - Willott, Chris
AU - Witstok, Joris
AU - Zhu, Yongda
N1 - Accepted for publication in ApJ
PY - 2025/10/17
Y1 - 2025/10/17
N2 - JWST has shed light on galaxy formation and metal enrichment within 300 Myr of the Big Bang. While luminous galaxies at $z > 10$ often show significant [O III]$λλ$4959, 5007 emission lines, it remains unclear whether such features are prevalent among fainter, more typical galaxies due to observational limits. We present deep imaging and spectroscopy of JADES-GS-z14-1 at $z_\mathrm{spec}=13.86^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$, currently the faintest spectroscopically confirmed galaxy at $z\approx 14$. It serendipitously received 70.7 hours of MIRI/F770W imaging in the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), the deepest MIRI exposure for any high-redshift galaxy to date. Nonetheless, we detect only tentative F770W emission of $7.9\pm2.8$ nJy at $2.8σ$ significance, constraining the total equivalent width of [O III]$λλ$4959, 5007 + H$β$ to $520^{+400}_{-380}$ A, weaker than most $z > 10$ galaxies with MIRI detections. This source is unresolved across 16 NIRCam bands, implying a physical radius $\lesssim50$ pc. NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy totaling 56 hours reveals no rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines above $3 σ$. Stellar population synthesis suggests a stellar mass $\sim4\times 10^{7}$ $\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and a star formation rate $\sim 2$ $\mathrm{M_\odot yr^{-1}}$. The absence of strong metal emission lines despite intense star formation suggests a gas-phase metallicity below 10% solar and potentially a high escape fraction of ionizing photons. These deep observations provide rare constraints on faint, early galaxies, tracing the onset of chemical enrichment and ionization in the early Universe.
AB - JWST has shed light on galaxy formation and metal enrichment within 300 Myr of the Big Bang. While luminous galaxies at $z > 10$ often show significant [O III]$λλ$4959, 5007 emission lines, it remains unclear whether such features are prevalent among fainter, more typical galaxies due to observational limits. We present deep imaging and spectroscopy of JADES-GS-z14-1 at $z_\mathrm{spec}=13.86^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$, currently the faintest spectroscopically confirmed galaxy at $z\approx 14$. It serendipitously received 70.7 hours of MIRI/F770W imaging in the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), the deepest MIRI exposure for any high-redshift galaxy to date. Nonetheless, we detect only tentative F770W emission of $7.9\pm2.8$ nJy at $2.8σ$ significance, constraining the total equivalent width of [O III]$λλ$4959, 5007 + H$β$ to $520^{+400}_{-380}$ A, weaker than most $z > 10$ galaxies with MIRI detections. This source is unresolved across 16 NIRCam bands, implying a physical radius $\lesssim50$ pc. NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy totaling 56 hours reveals no rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines above $3 σ$. Stellar population synthesis suggests a stellar mass $\sim4\times 10^{7}$ $\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and a star formation rate $\sim 2$ $\mathrm{M_\odot yr^{-1}}$. The absence of strong metal emission lines despite intense star formation suggests a gas-phase metallicity below 10% solar and potentially a high escape fraction of ionizing photons. These deep observations provide rare constraints on faint, early galaxies, tracing the onset of chemical enrichment and ionization in the early Universe.
KW - astro-ph.GA
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae01a1
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 992
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
JF - The Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
ER -