Spatially Resolved Properties of Galaxies at 5 < z < 9 in the SMACS 0723 JWST ERO Field

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We present the first spatially resolved measurements of galaxy properties in the JWST ERO SMACS 0723 field. We perform a comprehensive analysis of five 5 < z < 9 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from NIRSpec observations. We perform spatially resolved spectral energy distribution fitting with Bagpipes, using six NIRCam imaging bands spanning the wavelength range 0.8-5 mu m. This approach allows us to study the internal structure and assembly of the first generations of galaxies. We find clear gradients both in the empirical color maps and in most of the estimated physical parameters. We find regions of considerably different specific star formation rates across each galaxy, which points to very bursty star formation happening on small scales, not galaxy-wide. The integrated light is dominated by these bursty regions, which exhibit strong line emission, with the equivalent width of [O iii]+H beta reaching up to similar to 3000-4000 angstrom rest frame. Studying these galaxies in an integrated approach yields extremely young inferred ages of the stellar population (

Original languageEnglish
Article number126
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume948
Issue number2
Number of pages13
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023

    Research areas

  • STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS, LESS-THAN, LY-ALPHA, FORMATION HISTORIES, H-ALPHA, RELEASE, 1ST, SPECTROSCOPY, EMISSION

ID: 355106997