One can only hope!

Stay tuned for more soon as we figure out what this means for chemical abundances in low-mass galaxies at early times!

However, the analysis of individual objects shows that we have a few galaxies at low [OIII]/Hb *and* low [NII]/Ha, a region of parameter space that is extremely rare in local galaxies, but which photoionization models predict traces a turnover in [OIII]/Hb toward extremely low O/H (<<10% solar).

With that said, we find that the stack and typical galaxy have high [OIII]/Hb and low [NII]/Ha, as expected for low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies (O/H ~ 20% solar, similar to the Trainor+16 Keck/MOSFIRE stack).

The paper presents some physical properties of the galaxies such as star-formation rates and dust reddening, but we defer quantitative analysis of their masses and chemical abundances for a forthcoming paper that Menelaos is also leading.

With that in mind, check out this beautiful spectrum of a single galaxy in 2D and 1D, as well as a stacked 1D spectrum of the 9 objects:

These galaxies have stellar masses 10^7-10^9 Msun (1000x smaller than the Milky Way), and we’re measuring light from z=2-3 (a few billion years after the Big Bang), so it has been extremely difficult to detect relatively faint emission lines from Nitrogen and Sulfur even with hours on Keck/MOSFIRE.

Most of the analysis is based on ultra-deep (~30hr) JWST/NIRSpec spectra of 9 of the most continuum-faint galaxies from the CECILIA program (PI: Allison Strom).

It's amazing to look back through history and discover that this was prophesized back in 1981.

Awesome!! Congratulations, and of course so deserved!

Really impressive work here