We report the discovery of an accreting supermassive black hole at
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Abstract z = 8.679. This galaxy, denoted here as CEERS_1019, was previously discovered as a Lyα -break galaxy by Hubble with a Lyα redshift from Keck. As part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey, we have observed this source with JWST/NIRSpec, MIRI, NIRCam, and NIRCam/WFSS and uncovered a plethora of emission lines. The Hβ line is best fit by a narrow plus a broad component, where the latter is measured at 2.5σ with an FWHM ∼1200 km s−1. We conclude this originates in the broadline region of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). This is supported by the presence of weak high-ionization lines (N V, N IV], and C III]), as well as a spatial point-source component. The implied mass of the black hole (BH) is log (M BH/M ⊙) = 6.95 ± 0.37, and we estimate that it is accreting at 1.2 ± 0.5 times the Eddington limit. The 1–8μ m photometric spectral energy distribution shows a continuum dominated by starlight and constrains the host galaxy to be massive (log M/M⊙∼9.5) and highly star-forming (star formation rate, or SFR ∼ 30 M⊙yr−1; log sSFR ∼ − 7.9 yr−1). The line ratios show that the gas is metal-poor (Z /Z ⊙∼ 0.1), dense (n e ∼ 103cm−3), and highly ionized (logU ∼ − 2.1). We use this present highest-redshift AGN discovery to place constraints on BH seeding models and find that a combination of either super-Eddington accretion from stellar seeds or Eddington accretion from very massive BH seeds is required to form this object. -
Abstract We present a search for extremely red, dust-obscured,
z > 7 galaxies with JWST/NIRCam+MIRI imaging over the first 20 arcmin2of publicly available Cycle 1 data from the COSMOS-Web, CEERS, and PRIMER surveys. Based on their red color in F277W−F444W (∼2.5 mag) and detection in MIRI/F770W (∼25 mag), we identify two galaxies, COS-z8M1 and CEERS-z7M1, that have best-fit photometric redshifts of and , respectively. We perform spectral energy distribution fitting with a variety of codes (includingbagpipes ,prospector ,beagle , andcigale ) and find a >95% probability that these indeed lie atz > 7. Both sources are compact (R eff≲ 200 pc) and highly obscured (A V ∼ 1.5–2.5) and, at our best-fit redshift estimates, likely have strong [Oiii ]+Hβ emission contributing to their 4.4μ m photometry. We estimate stellar masses of ∼1010M ⊙for both sources; by virtue of detection in MIRI at 7.7μ m, these measurements are robust to the inclusion of bright emission lines, for example, from an active galactic nucleus. We identify a marginal (2.9σ ) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array detection at 2 mm within 0.″5 of COS-z8M1, which, if real, would suggest a remarkably high IR luminosity of ∼1012L ⊙. These two galaxies, if confirmed atz ∼ 8, would be extreme in their stellar and dust masses and may be representative of a substantial population of highly dust-obscured galaxies at cosmic dawn.