Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have uncovered a huge reservoir of cold molecular gas in the distant galaxy REBELS-25, seen just 700 million years after the Big Bang (z = 7.31).
The observations reveal around 100 billion solar masses of star-forming fuel, making this one of the most direct measurements of molecular gas in such an early galaxy. The VLA achieved the most distant detection of a key CO tracer, while ALMA provided complementary high-resolution insight into the galaxy’s star-forming environment and gas conditions. Together, the results show that massive galaxies in the early Universe already contained large gas reservoirs, capable of sustaining intense star formation during the epoch of reionization (pulished here DOI). Read ALMA press release here.
Image: The galaxy REBELS-25, taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/L. Rowland et al.