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The discovery of the most UV–Ly α luminous star-forming galaxy: a young, dust- and metal-poor starburst with QSO-like luminosities.
- Source :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters; Nov2020, Vol. 499 Issue 1, pL105-L110, 6p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- We report the discovery of BOSS-EUVLG1 at z  = 2.469, by far the most luminous, almost un-obscured star-forming galaxy known at any redshift. First classified as a QSO within the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, follow-up observations with the Gran Telescopio Canarias reveal that its large luminosity, M <subscript>UV</subscript> ≃ −24.40 and log(L <subscript>Lyα</subscript>/erg s<superscript>–1</superscript>) ≃ 44.0, is due to an intense burst of star formation, and not to an active galactic nucleus or gravitational lensing. BOSS-EUVLG1 is a compact (r <subscript>eff</subscript> ≃ 1.2 kpc), young (4–5 Myr) starburst with a stellar mass log(M <subscript>*</subscript>/M<subscript>⊙</subscript>) = 10.0 ± 0.1 and a prodigious star formation rate of ≃1000 M<subscript>⊙</subscript> yr<superscript>−1</superscript>. However, it is metal- and dust-poor [12 + log(O/H) = 8.13 ± 0.19, E (B – V) ≃ 0.07, log(L <subscript>IR</subscript>/ L <subscript>UV</subscript>) < −1.2], indicating that we are witnessing the very early phase of an intense starburst that has had no time to enrich the ISM. BOSS-EUVLG1 might represent a short-lived (<100 Myr), yet important phase of star-forming galaxies at high redshift that has been missed in previous surveys. Within a galaxy evolutionary scheme, BOSS-EUVLG1 could likely represent the very initial phases in the evolution of massive quiescent galaxies, even before the dusty star-forming phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17453925
- Volume :
- 499
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 147110626
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slaa160