RESUMEN
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.
RESUMEN
The identification of galaxies at extreme distances provides the most direct information about the earliest phases of galaxy formation. But at redshifts z > 5 even the most luminous galaxies appear faint; the interpretation of low signal-to-noise ratio data is difficult and misidentifications do occur. Here we report optical and near-infrared observations of the source STIS123627+621755, which was previously suggested to be at a redshift of 6.68 (ref. 1). At that redshift, and with the reported spectral energy distribution, the galaxy should be essentially invisible at wavelengths less than 9,300 A, because the intervening intergalactic medium absorbs almost all light energetic enough to ionize neutral hydrogen--that is, with wavelengths less than the redshifted Lyman limit of lambda = (1 + z) x 912A. At near-infrared wavelengths, however, the galaxy should be relatively bright. Here we report a detection of the galaxy at 6,700 A and a non-detection at a wavelength of 1.2 microm, contrary to expectations for z approximately 6.68. The data conservatively require that STIS123627+621755 has a redshift z < 6.
RESUMEN
We present a deep ASCA observation of a broad absorption line quasar (BALQSO) PG 0946+301. The source was clearly detected in one of the gas imaging spectrometers, but not in any other detector. If BALQSOs have intrinsic X-ray spectra similar to normal radio-quiet quasars, our observations imply that there is Thomson thick X-ray absorption (NH greater, similar1024 cm-2) toward PG 0946+301. This is the largest column density estimated so far toward a BALQSO. The absorber must be at least partially ionized and may be responsible for attenuation in the optical and UV. If the Thomson optical depth toward BALQSOs is close to 1, as inferred here, then spectroscopy in hard X-rays with large telescopes like XMM would be feasible.
RESUMEN
Active galactic nuclei are thought to be powered by gas falling into a massive black hole; the different types of active galaxy may arise because we view them through a thick torus of molecular gas at varying angles of inclination. One way to determine whether the black hole is surrounded by a torus, which would obscure the accretion disk around the black hole along certain lines of sight, is to search for water masers, as these exist only in regions with plentiful molecular gas. Since the first detection of an extra-galactic water maser in 1979, they have come to be associated primarily with active galaxies, and have even been used to probe the mass of the central engine. Here we report the detection of a water giga-maser in the radio galaxy TXFS2226-184. The strength of the emission supports a recently proposed theory of maser pumping that allows for even more powerful masers, which might be detectable at cosmological distances. Water masers may accordingly provide a way to determine distances to galaxies outside the usual distance ladder, providing an independent calibration of the Hubble constant.