Can I read Circumgalactic Enrichment by a Multi-Galaxy Merger at Redshift 6.7 on EtoBox?

Circumgalactic Enrichment by a Multi-Galaxy Merger at Redshift 6.7 by Hu, Weida; Papovich, Casey; Shen, Lu; Peng, Zixuan; Yung, L. Y. Aaron; Lemaux, Brian C.; Spilker, Justin; Cole, Justin is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Circumgalactic Enrichment by a Multi-Galaxy Merger at Redshift 6.7 about?

Recent JWST observations have uncovered high-redshift galaxies characterized by multiple star-forming clumps, many of which appear to be undergoing mergers. Such mergers are powerful drivers of galaxy evolution, triggering intense star formation that accelerates the formation of massive quiescent galaxies. Mergers can also expel and redistribute the metal-enriched gas from galaxies into their circum-galactic medium (CGM), regulating the chemical component of their environments and creating channels of ionized gas through which ionizing radiation escapes. Here, we report a merger of at least five galaxies, dubbed JWST's Quintet (JQ), at redshift 6.7, discovered in the JWST GOODS-South field. This system resides in a small area $\sim4.5''\times4.5''$ ($24.6\times24.6$ pkpc$^2$), containing over 17 galaxy-size clumps with a total stellar mass of $10^{10}\ M_\odot$. The JQ system has a total star formation rate of 240-270 $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, placing it $\sim1$ dex above the median star formation rate-mass main sequence at this epoch. The high mass and star formation rate of the JQ galaxies are sufficient to produce massive, inactive galaxies identified at later times, by redshift 4, s

Author

Hu, Weida; Papovich, Casey; Shen, Lu; Peng, Zixuan; Yung, L. Y. Aaron; Lemaux, Brian C.; Spilker, Justin; Cole, Justin

Published

2025

Language

EN