UNCOVER: Illuminating the Early Universe -- JWST/NIRSpec Confirmation of $z > 12$ Galaxies
Bingjie Wang, Seiji Fujimoto, Ivo Labbe, Lukas J. Furtak, Tim B., Miller, David J. Setton, Adi Zitrin, Hakim Atek, Rachel Bezanson, Gabriel, Brammer, Joel Leja, Pascal A. Oesch, Sedona H. Price, Iryna Chemerynska, Sam, E. Cutler, Pratika Dayal, Pieter van Dokkum

TL;DR
This paper reports the spectroscopic confirmation of two galaxies at redshifts greater than 12 using JWST, providing new insights into the properties and sizes of the earliest galaxies during the epoch of reionization.
Contribution
First spectroscopic confirmation of galaxies at z > 12 with detailed analysis of their properties and sizes using JWST data.
Findings
Confirmed galaxies at z=12.39 and z=13.08.
Galaxies are low mass, young, and star-forming.
Galaxies have larger sizes than similar high-redshift systems.
Abstract
Observations of high-redshift galaxies provide a critical direct test to the theories of early galaxy formation, yet to date, only three have been spectroscopically confirmed at . Due to strong gravitational lensing over a wide area, the galaxy cluster field A2744 is ideal for searching for the earliest galaxies. Here we present JWST/NIRSpec observations of two galaxies: a robust detection at , and a plausible candidate at . The galaxies are discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging and their distances are inferred with JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, all from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey. Detailed stellar population modeling using JWST NIRCam and NIRSpec data corroborates the primeval characteristics of these galaxies: low mass (), young, rapidly-assembling, metal-poor, and…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research · Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
