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- Hashimoto, Takuya, et al.
(author)
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The onset of star formation 250 million years after the Big Bang
- 2018
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In: Nature. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 557:7705, s. 392-395
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A fundamental quest of modern astronomy is to locate the earliest galaxies and study how they influenced the intergalactic medium a few hundred million years after the Big Bang(1-3). The abundance of star-forming galaxies is known to decline(4,5) from redshifts of about 6 to 10, but a key question is the extent of star formation at even earlier times, corresponding to the period when the first galaxies might have emerged. Here we report spectroscopic observations of MACS1149-JD1(6), a gravitationally lensed galaxy observed when the Universe was less than four per cent of its present age. We detect an emission line of doubly ionized oxygen at a redshift of 9.1096 +/- 0.0006, with an uncertainty of one standard deviation. This precisely determined redshift indicates that the red rest-frame optical colour arises from a dominant stellar component that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of about 15. Our results indicate that it may be possible to detect such early episodes of star formation in similar galaxies with future telescopes.
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| 2. |
- Kato, Yuta, et al.
(author)
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A high dust emissivity index beta for a CO-faint galaxy in a filamentary Ly alpha nebula at z=3.1
- 2018
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In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0004-6264 .- 2053-051X. ; 70:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present CO J = 4-3 line and 3 mm dust continuum observations of a 100 kpc-scale filamentary Ly alpha nebula (SSA22 LAB18) at z = 3.1 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We detected the CO J = 4-3 line at a systemic z(CO) = 3.093 +/- 0.001 at 11 sigma from one of the ALMA continuum sources associated with the Ly alpha filament. We estimated the CO J = 4-3 luminosity of L'(CO(4-3)) = (2.3 +/- 0.2) x 10(9) Kkms(-1) pc(2) for this CO source, which is one order of magnitude smaller than those of typical z > 1 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) of similar far-infrared luminosity L-IR similar to 10(12) L-circle dot. We derived a molecular gas mass of M-gas = (4.4(-0.6)(+0.9)) x 10(9) M-circle dot and a star-formation rate of SFR = 270 +/- 160M(circle dot) yr(-1). We also estimated a gas depletion time of tau(dep) = 17 +/- 10 Myr, which is shorter than those of typical DSFGs. It is suggested that this source is in the transition phase from DSFG to a gas-poor, early-type galaxy. From ALMA to Herschel multi-band dust continuum observations, we measured a dust emissivity index beta = 2.3 +/- 0.2, which is similar to those of local gas-poor, early-type galaxies. From recent laboratory experiments, the specific chemical compositions needed to reproduce such a high beta for interstellar dust at the submillimeter wavelengths. ALMA CO and multi-band dust continuum observations can constrain the evolutionary stage of high-redshift galaxies through tau(dep) and beta, and thus we can investigate the chemical composition of dust even in the early Universe.
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