Omont A, Petitjean P, Guilloteau S, McMahon R G, Solomon P M, Pécontal E
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris-CNRS, France.
Nature. 1996 Aug 1;382(6590):428-31. doi: 10.1038/382428a0.
Galaxies are believed to have formed a large proportion of their stars in giant bursts of star formation early in their lives, but when and how this took place are still very uncertain. The presence of large amounts of dust in quasars and radio galaxies at redshifts z > 4 shows that some synthesis of heavy elements had already occurred at this time. This implies that molecular gas--the building material of stars--should also be present, as it is in galaxies at lower redshifts (z approximately = 2.5, refs 7-10). Here we report the detection of emission from dust and carbon monoxide in the radio-quiet quasar BR1202 - 0725, at redshift z = 4.69. Maps of these emissions reveal two objects, separated by a few arc seconds, which could indicated either the presence of a companion to the quasar or gravitational lensing of the quasar itself. Regardless of the precise interpretation of the maps, the detection of carbon monoxide confirms the presence of a large mass of molecular gas in one of the most distant galaxies known, and shows that conditions conducive to huge bursts of star formation existed in the very early Universe.
星系被认为在其早期生命中通过大规模恒星形成爆发形成了很大一部分恒星，但这一过程何时以及如何发生仍非常不确定。红移z > 4的类星体和射电星系中存在大量尘埃，这表明此时已经发生了一些重元素的合成。这意味着分子气体（恒星的构成物质）也应该存在，就像在红移较低（z约为2.5，参考文献7 - 10）的星系中那样。在此，我们报告在红移z = 4.69的射电宁静类星体BR1202 - 0725中检测到尘埃和一氧化碳的辐射。这些辐射的图谱揭示了两个相隔几秒弧度的天体，这可能表明存在类星体的伴星或者类星体本身的引力透镜效应。无论对图谱的确切解释如何，一氧化碳的检测证实了在已知最遥远的星系之一中存在大量分子气体，并表明在早期宇宙中存在有利于大规模恒星形成爆发的条件。
