Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Molecular clouds in the Cosmic Snake normal star-forming galaxy 8 billion years ago
 
research article

Molecular clouds in the Cosmic Snake normal star-forming galaxy 8 billion years ago

Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava
•
Richard, Johan
•
Combes, Francoise
Show more
December 1, 2019
Nature Astronomy

The cold molecular gas in contemporary galaxies is structured in discrete cloud complexes. These giant molecular clouds (GMCs), with 10(4)-10(7) solar masses (M-circle dot) and radii of 5-100 parsecs, are the seeds of star formation(1). Highlighting the molecular gas structure at such small scales in distant galaxies is observationally challenging. Only a handful of molecular clouds were reported in two extreme submillimetre galaxies at high redshift(2-4). Here we search for GMCs in a typical Milky Way progenitor at z = 1.036. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we mapped the CO(4-3) emission of this gravitationally lensed galaxy at high resolution, reading down to 30 parsecs, which is comparable to the resolution of CO observations of nearby galaxies(5). We identify 17 molecular clouds, characterized by masses, surface densities and supersonic turbulence all of which are 10-100 times higher than present-day analogues. These properties question the universality of GMCs(6) and suggest that GMCs inherit their properties from ambient interstellar medium. The measured cloud gas masses are similar to the masses of stellar clumps seen in the galaxy in comparable numbers(7). This corroborates the formation of molecular clouds by fragmentation of distant turbulent galactic gas disks(8,9), which then turn into stellar clumps ubiquitously observed in galaxies at 'cosmic noon' (ref.(10)).

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41550-019-0874-0
Web of Science ID

WOS:000501586100022

Author(s)
Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava
•
Richard, Johan
•
Combes, Francoise
•
Schaerer, Daniel
•
Rujopakarn, Wiphu
•
Mayer, Lucio
•
Cava, Antonio
•
Boone, Frederic
•
Egami, Eiichi
•
Kneib, Jean-Paul  
Show more
Date Issued

2019-12-01

Publisher

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Published in
Nature Astronomy
Volume

3

Issue

12

Start page

1115

End page

1121

Subjects

Astronomy & Astrophysics

•

Astronomy & Astrophysics

•

giant clumps

•

starburst galaxy

•

luminosity

•

evolution

•

mass

Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LASTRO  
Available on Infoscience
December 26, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/164211
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés