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Computational astrophysics

Monstrous galaxies unmasked

Nature volume 525, pages 465–466 (2015)Cite this article

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The enigma of how the most luminous galaxies arise is closer to being solved. New simulations show that these are long-lived massive galaxies powered by prodigious gas infall and the recycling of supernova-driven outflows. See Letter p.496

Three billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was a different place from today. During that epoch, known as cosmic noon, the average star-formation rate across the cosmos was 100 times higher than it is at present, and individual galaxies were growing commensurately rapidly. This was illustrated by the surprising discovery1, more than a decade ago, of galaxies whose star-formation rates during that era were 1,000 times the Milky Way's current output — no such galaxies are seen in the present-day Universe. On page 496 of this issue, Narayanan et al.2 present numerical simulations that offer unprecedented clarity in understanding the origins of such deep-space monsters.

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Figure 1: Simulation of a submillimetre galaxy (SMG).

Robert Thompson

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  1. Romeel Davé is in the Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape, Bellville 7535, Cape Town, South Africa, and at the South African Astronomical Observatory and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.,

    Romeel Davé

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  1. Romeel Davé
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Correspondence to Romeel Davé.

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Davé, R. Monstrous galaxies unmasked. Nature 525, 465–466 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525465a

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