The AURORA Survey: The Nebular Attenuation Curve of a Galaxy at z=4.41 from Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Wavelengths

Understand

We use JWST/NIRSpec observations from the Assembly of Ultradeep Rest-optical Observations Revealing Astrophysics (AURORA) survey to constrain the shape of the nebular attenuation curve of a star-forming galaxy at z=4.41, GOODSN-17940.

• We utilize 11 unblended HI recombination lines to derive the attenuation curve spanning optical to near-infrared wavelengths (3751-9550 \r{A}).
• We then leverage a high-S/N 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 H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ indicate that GOODSN-17940 is dominated by an extremely young stellar population <10 Myr in age such that the UV stellar continuum experiences the same attenuation as the nebular emission.