Abstract
The most massive galaxies in the present-day Universe are found to lie
in the centres of rich clusters. They have old, coeval stellar
populations suggesting that the bulk of their stars must have formed at
early epochs in spectacular starbursts, which should be luminous
phenomena when observed at submillimetre wavelengths. The most popular
model of galaxy formation predicts that these galaxies form in
proto-clusters at high-density peaks in the early Universe. Such peaks
are indicated by massive high-redshift radio galaxies. Here we report
deep submillimetre mapping of seven high-redshift radio galaxies and
their environments. These data confirm not only the presence of
spatially extended regions of massive star-formation activity in the
radio galaxies themselves, but also in companion objects previously
undetected at any wavelength. The prevalence, orientation, and inferred
masses of these submillimetre companion galaxies suggest that we are
witnessing the synchronous formation of the most luminous elliptical
galaxies found today at the centres of rich clusters of galaxies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 264-267 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 425 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sep 2003 |