A magnified view of star formation at redshift 0.9 from two lensed galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution Hubble imaging of two lensed galaxies at redshift 0.91 to analyze star formation morphology and dust extinction, comparing multiple SFR indicators to understand obscuration effects during a peak epoch of star formation.

Contribution

It provides spatially resolved star formation and dust extinction measurements in high-redshift galaxies using gravitational lensing and multi-wavelength data, offering insights into nebular versus stellar extinction ratios.

Findings

SFRs from infrared data align with previous studies on extinction ratios.

High spatial resolution reveals star formation in distinct clumps.

Dust extinction estimates are consistent with prior research, but direct dust mapping is needed.

Abstract

We present new narrow-band H alpha imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope of two redshift 0.91 galaxies that have been lensed by foreground galaxy cluster Abell 2390. These data probe spatial scales as small as 0.3 kpc, providing a magnified look at the morphology of star formation at an epoch when the global star formation rate was high. However, dust attenuates our spatially resolved star formation rate (SFR) indicators, the H alpha and rest-UV emission, and we lack a direct measurement of extinction. Other studies have found that ionized gas in galaxies tends to be roughly 50 percent more obscured than stars; however, given an unextincted measurement of the SFR we can quantify the relative stellar to nebular extinction and the extinction in H{\alpha}. We infer SFRs from Spitzer and Herschel mid- to far-infrared observations and compare these to integrated H alpha and rest-UV SFRs; this yields stellar to nebular extinction ratios consistent with previous studies. We take advantage of high spatial resolution and contextualize these results in terms of the source-plane morphologies, comparing the distribution of H alpha to that of the rest-frame UV and optical light. In one galaxy, we measure separate SFRs in visually distinct clumps, but can set only a lower limit on the extinction and thus the star formation. Consequently, the data are also consistent with there being an equal amount of extinction along the lines of sight to the ionized gas as to the stars. Future observations in the far-infrared could settle this by mapping out the dust directly.