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A massive galaxy in its core formation phase three billion years after the Big Bang

Nature volume 513, pages 394–397 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Most massive galaxies are thought to have formed their dense stellar cores in early cosmic epochs1,2,3. Previous studies have found galaxies with high gas velocity dispersions4 or small apparent sizes5,6,7, but so far no objects have been identified with both the stellar structure and the gas dynamics of a forming core. Here we report a candidate core in the process of formation 11 billion years ago, at redshift z = 2.3. This galaxy, GOODS-N-774, has a stellar mass of 100 billion solar masses, a half-light radius of 1.0 kiloparsecs and a star formation rate of  solar masses per year. The star-forming gas has a velocity dispersion of 317 ± 30 kilometres per second. This is similar to the stellar velocity dispersions of the putative descendants of GOODS-N-774, which are compact quiescent galaxies at z ≈ 2 (refs 8, 9, 10, 11) and giant elliptical galaxies in the nearby Universe. Galaxies such as GOODS-N-774 seem to be rare; however, from the star formation rate and size of this galaxy we infer that many star-forming cores may be heavily obscured, and could be missed in optical and near-infrared surveys.

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Figure 1: Structural properties of GOODS-N-774.
Figure 2: Velocity dispersion of GOODS-N-774.
Figure 3: Ultraviolet/far-infrared spectral energy distribution of GOODS-N-774.
Figure 4: Properties of GOODS-N-774 compared with quiescent galaxies.

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Acknowledgements

Support from STScI grant GO-1277 is acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomy Department, Yale University, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    Erica Nelson, Pieter van Dokkum, Ivelina Momcheva & Joel Leja

  2. Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands,

    Marijn Franx

  3. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Gabriel Brammer

  4. Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbackstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany,

    Natascha Förster Schreiber, Linda Tacconi & Stijn Wuyts

  5. Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany,

    Elisabete da Cunha, Hans-Walter Rix & Arjen van der Wel

  6. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA,

    Rachel Bezanson

  7. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA

    Allison Kirkpatrick

  8. South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, Observatory, Cape Town 7935, South Africa,

    Rosalind Skelton

  9. Astrophysics Science Division, Goddard Space Center, Greenbelt, 20771, Maryland, USA

    Katherine Whitaker

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  1. Erica Nelson
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  16. Stijn Wuyts
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Contributions

E.N. obtained the data, led the analysis and the interpretation, and wrote the manuscript. P.v.D. contributed to the analysis and the interpretation. M.F. contributed to the interpretation. I.M. reduced the WFC3 imaging. G.B. and I.M. reduced the grism spectroscopy. K.W. and R.S. led the photometric analysis. All authors commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erica Nelson.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Linewidths of z ≈ 2 star-forming and quiescent galaxies.

The linewidth of GOODS-N-774 (open box) is among the highest measured for a normal star-forming galaxy at high redshift in Hα emission26,46 (light blue) or CO emission4 (SMGs; dark blue). The gas velocity dispersion is similar to the median stellar velocity dispersion of 304 km s−1 in a sample of quiescent galaxies at z = 1.5–2.2 with median mass of (refs 8, 9, 10, 11; red).

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Nelson, E., van Dokkum, P., Franx, M. et al. A massive galaxy in its core formation phase three billion years after the Big Bang. Nature 513, 394–397 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13616

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