Abstract / Description of output
ELLIPTICAL galaxies are thought to have formed most of their stars in a
rapid burst in the early Universe1, but an unambiguous example of a
'primaeval' elliptical galaxy (one undergoing its first major burst of
star formation) has yet to be discovered. High-redshift radio galaxies
are among the most promising candidates2'3, because their low-redshift
counterparts are identified exclusively with ellipticals, but the
presence of an active nucleus complicates the analysis of their
evolutionary state from optical-infrared observations3"5. The failure of
optical searches to detect primaeval ellipticals6"9 suggests that they
may be very dusty, prompting us to search for thermal emission from the
dust, which will be red-shifted to submillimetre wavelengths in our
reference frame. Our detection of submillimetre emission from the radio
galaxy 4C41.17, reported here, suggests that it contains a large mass of
dust, probably located in a dust lane obscuring the centre of the
galaxy10"14. The observations are consistent with the recent occurrence
of a massive burst of star formation, but probably not the first such
episode. We conclude that this galaxy was already in the final stages of
its formation at a look-back time of 12-15 billion years.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 347-349 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 370 |
Issue number | 6488 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 1994 |