Two Massive, Compact, and Dust-obscured Candidate z ≃ 8 Galaxies Discovered by JWST

Abstract

We present a search for extremely red, dust-obscured, z > 7 galaxies with JWST/NIRCam+MIRI imaging over the first 20 arcmin2 of publicly available Cycle 1 data from the COSMOS-Web, CEERS, and PRIMER surveys. Based on their red color in F277W−F444W (∼2.5 mag) and detection in MIRI/F770W (∼25 mag), we identify two galaxies, COS-z8M1 and CEERS-z7M1, that have best-fit photometric redshifts of z = 8.4 − 0.4 + 0.3 and 7.6 − 0.1 + 0.1 , respectively. We perform spectral energy distribution fitting with a variety of codes (including bagpipes, prospector, beagle, and cigale) and find a >95% probability that these indeed lie at z > 7. Both sources are compact (R eff ≲ 200 pc) and highly obscured (A V ∼ 1.5-2.5) and, at our best-fit redshift estimates, likely have strong [O iii]+Hβ emission contributing to their 4.4 μm photometry. We estimate stellar masses of ∼1010 M ⊙ for both sources; by virtue of detection in MIRI at 7.7 μm, these measurements are robust to the inclusion of bright emission lines, for example, from an active galactic nucleus. We identify a marginal (2.9σ) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array detection at 2 mm within 0.″5 of COS-z8M1, which, if real, would suggest a remarkably high IR luminosity of ∼1012 L ⊙. These two galaxies, if confirmed at z ∼ 8, would be extreme in their stellar and dust masses and may be representative of a substantial population of highly dust-obscured galaxies at cosmic dawn. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.