The research was led by, a Ph.D. student at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute dedicated to studying high-redshift galaxies and galaxy formation and evolution. As he and his colleagues explained in their paper, studying high-redshift galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization has always been a major challenge due to a lack of suitable facilities.
Based on their analysis, they found several very bright sources , indicating that a very prominent H-alpha emission line was present in observed galaxies. As Rinaldi explained: “To confirm that we were indeed observing the H-a emission, we employed photometric techniques that allowed us to isolate galaxies displaying an ‘excess’ in their photometry. Assuming that these galaxies were at the correct distance , we derived the H-a emission fluxes. By conducting follow-up spectroscopic observations, we were able to verify the redshift of our sources.
The astronomers hope to follow up by observing these same galaxies using Webb’s suite of spectrometers to learn more about the shape of the galaxies’ emission lines. This data could reveal more about the gas flux within these early galaxies and the dynamics of star formation. But at the moment, the team hopes to pursue these exciting findings and see what implications the first-ever detection of galaxies in the Cosmic Dawn will have.
“Our current focus is to comprehend the role of these H-a emitters within the context of the Epoch of Reionization, which refers to the moment when the first galaxies started to appear and reionize the Universe,” said Rinaldi. “We are actively working on this project right now and hope to publish our exciting results very soon!”
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