A massive stellar bulge in a regularly rotating galaxy 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang

Journal
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
•
Di Teodoro, Enrico M.
•
Fraternali, Filippo
•
Man, Allison W. S.
•
Zhang, Zhi-Yu
•
De Breuck, Carlos
•
Davis, Timothy A.
•
Maiolino, Roberto
DOI
Abstract
Cosmological models predict that galaxies forming in the early Universe experience a chaotic phase of gas accretion and star formation, followed by gas ejection due to feedback processes. Galaxy bulges may assemble later via mergers or internal evolution. Here we present submillimeter observations (with spatial resolution of 700 parsecs) of ALESS 073.1, a starburst galaxy at redshift z≃5 when the Universe was 1.2 billion years old. This galaxy’s cold gas forms a regularly rotating disk with negligible noncircular motions. The galaxy rotation curve requires the presence of a central bulge in addition to a star-forming disk. We conclude that massive bulges and regularly rotating disks can form more rapidly in the early Universe than predicted by models of galaxy formation.
Volume
371
Issue
6530
Start page
713
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0036-8075
Ads BibCode
2021Sci...371..713L
Rights
open.access
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