A recently quenched galaxy 700 million years after the Big Bang

Tobias J Looser; Francesco D'Eugenio; Roberto Maiolino; Joris Witstok; Lester Sandles; Emma Curtis-Lake; Jacopo Chevallard; Sandro Tacchella; Benjamin D Johnson; William M Baker; Katherine A Suess; Stefano Carniani; Pierre Ferruit; Santiago Arribas; Nina Bonaventura; Andrew J Bunker; Alex J Cameron; Stephane Charlot; Mirko Curti; Anna de Graaff; Michael V Maseda; Tim Rawle; Hans-Walter Rix; Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino; Renske Smit; Hannah Übler; Chris Willott; Stacey Alberts; Eiichi Egami; Daniel J Eisenstein; Ryan Endsley; Ryan Hausen; Marcia Rieke; Brant Robertson; Irene Shivaei; Christina C Williams; Kristan Boyett; Zuyi Chen; Zhiyuan Ji; Gareth C Jones; Nimisha Kumari; Erica Nelson; Michele Perna; Aayush Saxena; Jan Scholtz

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07227-0

A recently quenched galaxy 700 million years after the Big Bang

Nature. 2024 May;629(8010):53-57. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07227-0. Epub 2024 Mar 6.

Authors

Tobias J Looser^{1

2}, Francesco D'Eugenio^{3

4}, Roberto Maiolino^{3

4

5}, Joris Witstok^{3

4}, Lester Sandles^{3

4}, Emma Curtis-Lake⁶, Jacopo Chevallard⁷, Sandro Tacchella^{3

4}, Benjamin D Johnson⁸, William M Baker^{3

4}, Katherine A Suess^{9

10

11}, Stefano Carniani¹², Pierre Ferruit¹³, Santiago Arribas¹⁴, Nina Bonaventura^{15

16}, Andrew J Bunker⁷, Alex J Cameron⁷, Stephane Charlot¹⁷, Mirko Curti^{3

4

18}, Anna de Graaff¹⁹, Michael V Maseda²⁰, Tim Rawle²¹, Hans-Walter Rix¹⁹, Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino¹⁴, Renske Smit²², Hannah Übler^{3

4}, Chris Willott²³, Stacey Alberts²⁴, Eiichi Egami²⁴, Daniel J Eisenstein⁸, Ryan Endsley²⁵, Ryan Hausen²⁶, Marcia Rieke²⁴, Brant Robertson⁹, Irene Shivaei²⁴, Christina C Williams²⁷, Kristan Boyett²⁸, Zuyi Chen²⁴, Zhiyuan Ji²⁴, Gareth C Jones⁷, Nimisha Kumari²⁹, Erica Nelson³⁰, Michele Perna¹⁴, Aayush Saxena^{5

7}, Jan Scholtz^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. tjl54@cam.ac.uk.
² Cavendish Laboratory - Astrophysics Group, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. tjl54@cam.ac.uk.
³ Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Cavendish Laboratory - Astrophysics Group, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, UK.
⁶ Centre for Astrophysics Research, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁸ Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹² Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
¹³ European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), European Space Agency (ESA), Madrid, Spain.
¹⁴ Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)-National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁶ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁷ Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Paris, France.
¹⁸ European Southern Observatory, Garching bei Muenchen, Germany.
¹⁹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany.
²⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
²¹ European Space Agency (ESA) Office, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, MD, USA.
²² Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
²³ NRC Herzberg, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
²⁴ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
²⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
²⁷ NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Tucson, AZ, USA.
²⁸ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
²⁹ AURA for European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³⁰ Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.

Abstract

Local and low-redshift (z < 3) galaxies are known to broadly follow a bimodal distribution: actively star-forming galaxies with relatively stable star-formation rates and passive systems. These two populations are connected by galaxies in relatively slow transition. By contrast, theory predicts that star formation was stochastic at early cosmic times and in low-mass systems^1-4. These galaxies transitioned rapidly between starburst episodes and phases of suppressed star formation, potentially even causing temporary quiescence-so-called mini-quenching events^5,6. However, the regime of star-formation burstiness is observationally highly unconstrained. Directly observing mini-quenched galaxies in the primordial Universe is therefore of utmost importance to constrain models of galaxy formation and transformation^7,8. Early quenched galaxies have been identified out to redshift z < 5 (refs. ^9-12) and these are all found to be massive (M_⋆ > 10¹⁰ M_⊙) and relatively old. Here we report a (mini-)quenched galaxy at z = 7.3, when the Universe was only 700 Myr old. The JWST/NIRSpec spectrum is very blue (U-V = 0.16 ± 0.03 mag) but exhibits a Balmer break and no nebular emission lines. The galaxy experienced a short starburst followed by rapid quenching; its stellar mass (4-6 × 10⁸ M_⊙) falls in a range that is sensitive to various feedback mechanisms, which can result in perhaps only temporary quenching.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Extraterrestrial Environment / chemistry
Galaxies*
Stars, Celestial
Time Factors