The Unusual Spectral Energy Distribution of a Galaxy Previously Reported to be at Redshift 6.68

Abstract

Observations of distant galaxies are important both for understanding how galaxies form and for probing the physical conditions of the universe at the earliest epochs. It is, however, extremely difficult to identify galaxies at redshift z>5, because these galaxies are faint and exhibit few spectral features. In a previous work, we presented observations that supported the identification of a galaxy at redshift z = 6.68 in a deep STIS field. Here we present new ground-based photometry of the galaxy. We find that the galaxy exhibits moderate detections of flux in the optical B and V images that are inconsistent with the expected absence of flux at wavelength shortward of the redshifted Lyman-alpha emission line of a galaxy at redshift z>5. In addition, the new broad-band imaging data not only show flux measurements of this galaxy that are incompatible with the previous STIS measurement, but also suggest a peculiar spectral energy distribution that cannot be fit with any galaxy spectral template at any redshift. We therefore conclude that the redshift identification of this galaxy remains undetermined.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; To appear in Nature (30 November 2000