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A multiply lensed galaxy, MACS0647-JD, with a probable photometric redshift of is claimed to constitute one of the very earliest known galaxies, formed well before reionization was completed. However, spectral evidence that MACS0647-JD lies at high redshift has proven infeasible and so here we seek an independent-lensing-based “geometric redshift” derived from the angles between the three lensed images of MACS0647-JD, using our free-form mass model (WSLAP+) for the lensing cluster MACSJ0647.7+7015 (at z = 0.591). Our lens model uses the nine sets of multiple images, including those of MACS0647-JD, identified by the CLASH survey toward this cluster. We convincingly exclude the low-redshift regime of z < 3, for which convoluted critical curves are generated by our method, as the solution bends to accommodate the wide angles of MACS0647-JD for this low redshift. Instead, a best fit to all sets of lensed galaxy positions and redshifts provides a geometric redshift of for MACS0647-JD, strongly supporting the higher photometric redshift solution. Importantly, we find a tight linear relation between the relative brightnesses of all nine sets of multiply lensed images and their relative magnifications as predicted by our model. This agreement provides a benchmark for the quality of the lens model, and establishes the robustness of our free-form lensing method for measuring model-independent geometric source distances and for deriving objective central cluster mass distributions. After correcting for its magnification the luminosity of MACS0647-JD remains relatively high at MUV = −19.4, which is within a factor of a few in flux of some surprisingly luminous z ≃ 10–11 candidates discovered recently in Hubble blank field surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present observations at 7 mm that fully resolve the two circumstellar disks and a reanalysis of archival observations at 3.5 cm that resolve along their major axes the two ionized jets of the Class I binary protostellar system L1551NE. We show that the two circumstellar disks are better fit by a shallow inner and steep outer power law than a truncated power law. The two disks have very different transition radii between their inner and outer regions of ∼18.6 au and ∼8.9 au, respectively. Assuming that they are intrinsically circular and geometrically thin, we find that the two circumstellar disks are parallel with each other and orthogonal in projection to their respective ionized jets. Furthermore, the two disks are closely aligned if not parallel with their circumbinary disk. Over an interval of ∼10 yr, source B (possessing the circumsecondary disk) has moved northward with respect to and likely away from source A, indicating an orbital motion in the same direction as the rotational motion of their circumbinary disk. All the aforementioned elements therefore share the same axis for their angular momentum, indicating that L1551NE is a product of rotationally driven fragmentation of its parental core. Assuming a circular orbit, the relative disk sizes are compatible with theoretical predictions for tidal truncation by a binary system having a mass ratio of ∼0.2, in agreement with the reported relative separations of the two protostars from the center of their circumbinary disk. The transition radii of both disks, however, are a factor of ≳1.5 smaller than their predicted tidally truncated radii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-velocity system (HVS) lies just north-west of the center and is moving at a speed of 3000 km s−1 toward NGC 1275, the central giant elliptical galaxy in the Perseus cluster. We report imaging spectroscopy of the HVS in Hα and [N ii] that resolves both the nature of this galaxy and its physical relationship with NGC 1275. The HVS exhibits a distorted disk having a projected rotational velocity that rises steadily to ∼200 km s−1 at a radius of ∼12 kpc, the same maximal extent detectable in neutral gas and dust. We discover highly blueshifted emission at relative velocities of up to ∼800 km s−1 distributed throughout and confined almost entirely within the projected area of the disk, tracing gas stripped by ram pressure. The distribution of the stripped gas implies that the HVS is moving essentially along our sightline closely toward the center of NGC 1275. We show that the speed of the HVS is consistent with it having fallen from rest at the virial radius of the Perseus cluster and reached ∼100 kpc from the cluster center. Despite having an overall metallicity (inferred from [N ii]/Hα) significantly lower than that of star-forming disk galaxies, the HVS exhibits a current star formation rate of ∼3.6 M⊙ yr−1 and numerous young star clusters projected against giant H ii regions. The evidence assembled implicates a progenitor giant low-surface-brightness galaxy that, because of galaxy harassment and/or the cluster tidal field, has developed two prominent spiral arms along which star formation is strongly elevated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]