Molecular gas in the host galaxy of a quasar at redshift z = 6.42

Fabian Walter (), Frank Bertoldi, Chris Carilli, Pierre Cox, K. Y. Lo, Roberto Neri, Xiaohui Fan, Alain Omont, Michael A. Strauss and Karl M. Menten
Additional contact information
Fabian Walter: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Frank Bertoldi: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Chris Carilli: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Pierre Cox: Universite de Paris-Sud
K. Y. Lo: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Roberto Neri: IRAM
Xiaohui Fan: University of Arizona
Alain Omont: Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS & Université Paris 6
Michael A. Strauss: Princeton University Observatory
Karl M. Menten: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie

Nature, 2003, vol. 424, issue 6947, 406-408

Abstract: Abstract Observations of molecular hydrogen in quasar host galaxies at high redshifts provide fundamental constraints on galaxy evolution, because it is out of this molecular gas that stars form. Molecular hydrogen is traced by emission from the carbon monoxide molecule, CO; cold H2 itself is generally not observable. Carbon monoxide has been detected in about ten quasar host galaxies with redshifts z > 2; the record-holder is at z = 4.69 (refs 1–3). Here we report CO emission from the quasar SDSS J114816.64 + 525150.3 (refs 5, 6) at z = 6.42. At that redshift, the Universe was only 1/16 of its present age, and the era of cosmic reionization was just ending. The presence of about 2 × 1010 M⊙ of H2 in an object at this time demonstrates that molecular gas enriched with heavy elements can be generated rapidly in the youngest galaxies.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01821 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:424:y:2003:i:6947:d:10.1038_nature01821

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature01821

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().