NIR-dark Galaxies
A purposefully vague umbrella term, "NIR-dark" describes a wide array of distant and dust-obscured galaxies characterized by their lack of optical/near-infrared detections, but strong far-infrared, millimeter, and/or radio wavelengths. Our challenge now is to disentangle the distinct galaxy populations which may exist within this broad framework.
Above: Cutouts of a NIR-dark galaxy called MORA-5 clearly show non-detections in deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, but strong emission at longer wavelengths. The orange contour depicts the robust (5 sigma) ALMA detection.
Above: This star-formation main sequence plot illustrates the apparent heterogenous nature of some of the NIR-dark galaxies discovered thus far.
Non-uniform selection
These galaxies were discovered in surveys with varying wavelength coverage, depth, and all with distinct selection techniques, further complicating matters as we attempt to work out their formation histories and evolutionary pathways.
NIR-dark Galaxies in the MORA Survey
Four NIR-dark sources were detected in the MORA Survey (check out more on that survey here). Their photometric properties suggest they might be the highest-redshift objects in our 2mm ALMA map. A complete analysis of these galaxies, their physical properties, and potential evolutionary connection to high redshift quiescent galaxies can be found in Manning et al. 2022.
- Posted on:
- January 11, 2023
- Length:
- 1 minute read, 150 words
- Categories:
- High-redshift DSFGs Published Papers
- Tags:
- hugo-site
- See Also:
- COSMOS-Web
- MORA Survey
- SuperCLASS Survey