A recently quenched galaxy 700 million years after the Big Bang

Understand

Local and low-redshift ($z$<$3$) galaxies are known to broadly follow a bimodal distribution: actively star forming galaxies with relatively stable star-formation rates, and passive systems.

• These two populations are connected by galaxies in relatively slow transition.
• In contrast, theory predicts that star formation was stochastic at early cosmic times and in low-mass systems: these galaxies transitioned rapidly between starburst episodes and phases of suppressed star formation, potentially even causing temporary quiescence -- so-called mini-quenching events.
• However, the regime of star-formation burstiness is observationally highly unconstrained.