Witnessing the onset of reionization through Lyman-α emission at redshift 13.

ABSTRACT: Cosmic reionization began when ultraviolet (UV) radiation produced in the first galaxies began illuminating the cold, neutral gas that filled the primordial Universe^1,2. Recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have shown that surprisingly UV-bright galaxies were in place beyond redshift z = 14, when the Universe was less than 300 Myr old^3-5. Smooth turnovers of their UV continua have been interpreted as damping-wing absorption of Lyman-α (Ly-α), the principal hydrogen transition^6-9. However, spectral signatures encoding crucial properties of these sources, such as their emergent radiation field, largely remain elusive. Here we report spectroscopy from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES¹⁰) of a galaxy at redshift z = 

SUBMITTER: Witstok J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11946913 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature