A Cosmic Miracle: A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at $z_{\rm{spec}}=14.44$ Confirmed with JWST

Understand

JWST has revealed a stunning population of bright galaxies at surprisingly early epochs, $z>10$, where few such sources were expected.

• Here we present the most distant example of this class yet -- MoM-z14, a luminous ($M_{\rm{UV}}=-20.2$) source in the COSMOS field at $z_{\rm{spec}}=14.44^{+0.02}_{-0.02}$ that expands the observational frontier to a mere 280 million years after the Big Bang.
• The redshift is confirmed with NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy through a sharp Lyman-$\alpha$ break and $\sim3\sigma$ detections of five rest-UV emission lines.
• The number density of bright $z_{\rm{spec}}\sim14-15$ sources implied by our "Mirage or Miracle" survey spanning $\sim350$ arcmin$^{2}$ is $>100\times$ larger ($182^{+329}_{-105}\times$) than pre-JWST consensus models.