We use JWST/NIRSpec observations from the Assembly of Ultradeep Rest-optical Observations Revealing Astrophysics survey to constrain the shape of the nebular attenuation curve of a star-forming galaxy at z = 4.41, GOODSN-17940. We utilize 12 H i recombination lines to derive the attenuation curve spanning optical to near-infrared wavelengths (3751–9550 Å). We then leverage a high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic detection of the rest-frame ultraviolet continuum in combination with rest-UV photometric measurements to constrain the shape of the curve at ultraviolet wavelengths. While this UV constraint is predominantly based on stellar emission, the large measured equivalent widths of Hα and Hβ indicate that GOODSN-17940 is dominated by an extremely young stellar population <10 Myr in age such that the UV stellar continuum experiences similar attenuation to that of the nebular emission. The resulting combined nebular attenuation curve spans 1400–9550 Å and has a shape that deviates significantly from commonly assumed dust curves in high-redshift studies. Relative to the Milky Way, SMC, and Calzetti curves, the new curve has a steeper slope at long wavelengths (λ > 5000 Å) while displaying a similar slope across blue-optical wavelengths (λ = 3750–5000 Å). In the ultraviolet, the new curve is shallower than the SMC and Calzetti curves and displays no significant 2175 Å bump. This work demonstrates that the most commonly assumed dust curves are not appropriate for all high-redshift galaxies. These results highlight the ability to derive nebular attenuation curves for individual high-redshift sources with deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, thereby improving the accuracy of physical properties inferred from nebular emission lines.
The AURORA Survey: The Nebular Attenuation Curve of a Galaxy at z = 4.41 from Ultraviolet to Near-infrared Wavelengths
Creators
-
Sanders, Ryan L.1
-
Shapley, Alice E.2
-
Topping, Michael W.3
-
Reddy, Naveen A.4
-
Berg, Danielle A.5
-
Bouwens, Rychard J.6
-
Brammer, Gabriel7
-
Carnall, Adam C.8
-
Cullen, Fergus8
-
Davé, Romeel8
- Dunlop, James S.8
-
Ellis, Richard S.9
-
Förster Schreiber, N. M.10
-
Furlanetto, Steven R.2
-
Glazebrook, Karl11
-
Illingworth, Garth D.12
-
Jones, Tucker13
-
Kriek, Mariska6
-
McLeod, Derek J.8
- McLure, Ross J.8
-
Narayanan, Desika14
-
Oesch, Pascal A.7, 15
-
Pahl, Anthony J.16
-
Pettini, Max17
-
Schaerer, Daniel15
- Stark, Daniel P.3
-
Steidel, Charles C.18
-
Tang, Mengtao3
-
Clarke, Leonardo2
-
Donnan, Callum T.8
- Kehoe, Emily2
-
1.
University of Kentucky
-
2.
University of California, Los Angeles
-
3.
University of Arizona
-
4.
University of California, Berkeley
-
5.
The University of Texas at Austin
-
6.
Leiden University
-
7.
University of Copenhagen
-
8.
Royal Observatory
-
9.
University College London
-
10.
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
-
11.
Swinburne University of Technology
-
12.
University of California, Santa Cruz
-
13.
University of California, Davis
-
14.
University of Florida
-
15.
University of Geneva
-
16.
Carnegie Observatories
-
17.
University of Cambridge
-
18.
California Institute of Technology
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. 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. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-03127 for JWST. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via doi:10.17909/hvne-7139. Some of the data products presented herein were retrieved from the Dawn JWST Archive (DJA). DJA is an initiative of the Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), which is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant DNRF140. We also acknowledge support from NASA grant JWST-GO-01914. F.C. acknowledges support from a UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee grant (PI Cullen; grant reference EP/X021025/1). C.T.D., D.J.M., R.J.M., and J.S.D. acknowledge the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. J.S.D. also acknowledges the support of the Royal Society through a Royal Society Research Professorship. R.D. acknowledges support from the Wolfson Research Merit Award program of the U.K. Royal Society. K.G. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060. M.K. acknowledges funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) through the award of the Vici grant VI.C.222.047 (project 2010007169). P.O. acknowledges the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract No. MB22.00072, as well as from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through project grant 200020_207349. A.J.P. was generously supported by a Carnegie Fellowship through the Carnegie Observatories. R.S.E. acknowledges financial support from the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation. A.C.C. acknowledges support from a UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee grant [grant reference EP/Y037065/1]. D.N. was funded by JWST-AR-01883.001. Finally, we thank members of the JADES team for assistance with target selection in the GOODS-N field.
Facilities
JWST - James Webb Space Telescope (NIRSpec, NIRCam).
Files
Sanders_2025_ApJ_989_209.pdf
Files
(1.8 MB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:e98a24430f95c1b93266b281641f1313
|
1.8 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:2408.05273 (arXiv)
- Is supplemented by
- Dataset: 10.17909/hvne-7139 (DOI)
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NAS5-03127
- Danish National Research Foundation
- DNRF140
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- JWST-GO-01914
- UK Research and Innovation
- EP/X021025/1
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Royal Society
- Australian Research Council
- FL180100060
- Dutch Research Council
- VI.C.222.047
- State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation
- MB22.00072
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- 200020_207349
- Carnegie Observatories
- Gruber Foundation
- UK Research and Innovation
- EP/Y037065/1
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- JWST-AR-01883.001
Dates
- Accepted
-
2025-07-14
- Available
-
2025-08-19Published