Abstract
GALAXIES at high redshift are very faint and difficult to study at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, but detection of far-infrared emission1 and molecular gas2,3 in a galaxy at redshift z≈2.3 has suggested that their early evolution may be investigated by these means instead. The host galaxies of quasars are promising candi-dates for these observations, particularly as quasars might be triggered by interactions and mergers between galaxies4,5 which result in dust- and gas-rich systems. The Cloverleaf, a gravitation-ally lensed quasar, has far-infrared/submillimetre emission indicat-ing a substantial dust content6, and therefore potentially a large amount of gas. Here we report the detection of carbon monoxide emission from the Cloverleaf, which we interpret as indicating a mass of molecular gas that is comparable to the total dynamical mass of the host galaxy, and which is consistent with the total baryonic content of a present-day luminous galaxy. This suggests that, although some processing of gas through stars has taken place in the Cloverleaf at a lookback time of 85% of the current age of the Universe, much of the future stellar content has yet to be formed.
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Barvainis, R., Tacconi, L., Antonucci, R. et al. Extremely strong carbon monoxide emission from the Cloverleaf quasar at a redshift of 2.5. Nature 371, 586–588 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/371586a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/371586a0
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