Resolving the Interstellar Medium at the Peak of Cosmic Star Formation

Abstract

The interstellar medium feeds both the formation of stars and the growth of black holes, making it a key ingredient in the evolution of galaxies. With the advent of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we can now probe the interstellar medium within high-redshift galaxies in increasingly exquisite detail. Our recent ALMA observations map the molecular gas and dust continuum emission in submillimetre-selected galaxies on 1–5 kpc scales, revealing significant differences in how the gas, dust continuum, and existing stellar emission are distributed within the galaxies. This study demonstrates the power of ALMA to shed new light on the structure and kinematics of the interstellar medium in the early Universe, suggesting that the interpretation of such observations is more complex than typically assumed.

Abstract

Published in The Messenger vol. 173, pp. 33-36, September 2018.