Spiral morphology in an intensely star-forming disk galaxy more than 12 billion years ago

Abstract

Spiral galaxies have distinct internal structures including a stellar bulge, disk and spiral arms. It is unknown when in cosmic history these structures formed. We analyze observations of BRI 1335-0417, an intensely star-forming galaxy in the distant Universe, at redshift 4.41. The [C II] gas kinematics show a steep velocity rise near the galaxy center and have a two-armed spiral morphology that extends from about 2 to 5 kiloparsecs in radius. We interpret these features as due to a central compact structure, such as a bulge, a rotating gas disk and either spiral arms or tidal tails. These features had been formed within 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, long before the peak of cosmic star formation.

arXiv commentPublished in Science on May 20. Main (3 Figures)+Supplementary (6 Figures; 2 Tables) This is the author version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science on Vol 372 Issue 6547 11 June 2021 doi: 10.1126/science.abe9680

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