CEERS Key Paper. III. The Diversity of Galaxy Structure and Morphology at z = 3-9 with JWST
Author
Kartaltepe, J.S.Rose, C.
Vanderhoof, B.N.
McGrath, E.J.
Costantin, L.
Cox, I.G.
Aaron, Yung, L.Y.
Kocevski, D.D.
Wuyts, S.
Ferguson, H.C.
Bagley, M.B.
Finkelstein, S.L.
Amorín, R.O.
Andrews, B.H.
Haro, P.A.
Backhaus, B.E.
Behroozi, P.
Bisigello, L.

Calabrò, A.
Casey, C.M.
Coogan, R.T.
Cooper, M.C.
Croton, D.
de la Vega, A.
Dickinson, M.
Fontana, A.
Franco, M.
Grazian, A.

Grogin, N.A.
Hathi, N.P.
Holwerda, B.W.
Huertas-Company, M.
Iyer, K.G.
Jogee, S.
Jung, I.
Kewley, L.J.
Kirkpatrick, A.
Koekemoer, A.M.
Liu, J.
Lotz, J.M.
Lucas, R.A.
Newman, J.A.
Pacifici, C.
Pandya, V.
Papovich, C.
Pentericci, L.
Pérez-González, P.G.
Petersen, J.
Pirzkal, N.
Rafelski, M.
Ravindranath, S.
Simons, R.C.
Snyder, G.F.
Somerville, R.S.
Stanway, E.R.
Straughn, A.N.
Tacchella, S.
Trump, J.R.
Vega-Ferrero, J.
Wilkins, S.M.
Yang, G.
Zavala, J.A.
Affiliation
Department of Astronomy, Steward Observatory, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2023-03-27
Metadata
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American Astronomical SocietyCitation
Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe et al 2023 ApJL 946 L15Journal
Astrophysical Journal LettersRights
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
We present a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the morphological and structural properties of a large sample of galaxies at z = 3-9 using early James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) CEERS NIRCam observations. Our sample consists of 850 galaxies at z > 3 detected in both Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/WFC3 and CEERS JWST/NIRCam images, enabling a comparison of HST and JWST morphologies. We conduct a set of visual classifications, with each galaxy in the sample classified three times. We also measure quantitative morphologies across all NIRCam filters. We find that galaxies at z > 3 have a wide diversity of morphologies. Galaxies with disks make up 60% of galaxies at z = 3, and this fraction drops to ∼30% at z = 6-9, while galaxies with spheroids make up ∼30%-40% across the redshift range, and pure spheroids with no evidence for disks or irregular features make up ∼20%. The fraction of galaxies with irregular features is roughly constant at all redshifts (∼40%-50%), while those that are purely irregular increases from ∼12% to ∼20% at z > 4.5. We note that these are apparent fractions, as many observational effects impact the visibility of morphological features at high redshift. On average, Spheroid-only galaxies have a higher Sérsic index, smaller size, and higher axis ratio than disk or irregular galaxies. Across all redshifts, smaller spheroid and disk galaxies tend to be rounder. Overall, these trends suggest that galaxies with established disks and spheroids exist across the full redshift range of this study, and further work with large samples at higher redshift is needed to quantify when these features first formed. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.Note
Open access journalISSN
2041-8205Version
Final Published Versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3847/2041-8213/acad01
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.