RUBIES Reveals a Massive Quiescent Galaxy at  z  = 7.3

Weibel, Andrea; Graaff, Anna de; Setton, David J.; Miller, Tim B.; Oesch, Pascal A.; Brammer, Gabriel; Lagos, Claudia del P.; Whitaker, Katherine E.; Williams, Christina C.; Baggen, Josephine F. W.; Bezanson, Rachel; Boogaard, Leindert; Cleri, Nikko J.; Greene, Jenny E.; Hirschmann, Michaela; Hviding, Raphael E.; Kuruvanthodi, A.; Labbé, Ivo; Leja, Joel; Maseda, Michael V.; Matthee, Jorryt; McConachie, Ian; Naidu, Rohan P.; Roberts-Borsani, Guido; Schaerer, D.; Suess, Katherine A.; Valentino, Francesco; Dokkum, Pieter van; Wang, Bingjie

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adab7a

articleThe Astrophysical JournalApr 1, 2025GOLD OA

RUBIES Reveals a Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z = 7.3

AWAndrea Weibel ADAnna de Graaff DJDavid J. Setton TBTim B. Miller PAPascal A. Oesch

Damien Foundation

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Abstract

Abstract We report the spectroscopic discovery of a massive quiescent galaxy at z spec = 7.29 ± 0.01, just ∼700 Myr after the big bang. RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 was selected from public JWST/NIRCam and MIRI imaging from the PRIMER survey and observed with JWST/NIRSpec as part of RUBIES. The NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum reveals one of the strongest Balmer breaks observed thus far at z > 6, with no emission lines but tentative Balmer and Ca absorption features, as well as a Lyman break. Simultaneous modeling of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum and NIRCam and MIRI photometry (spanning 0.9–18 μ m) shows that the galaxy formed a stellar mass of log ( M * / M ⊙ ) = 10.2 3 − 0.04 + 0.04 before z ∼ 8 and ceased…

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Physics
Astrophysics
Galaxy
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