Image captions:

A – Star factories in the distant Universe

This artist’s impression of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102 shows large bright clouds a few hundred light-years in size, which are regions of active star formation, These “star factories” are similar in size to those in the Milky Way, but one hundred times more luminous, suggesting that star formation in the early life of these galaxies is a much more vigorous process than typically found in local galaxies.

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser



B: Star factories in the distant Universe

This artist’s impression of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102 shows large bright clouds a few hundred light-years in size, which are regions of active star formation, These “star factories” are similar in size to those in the Milky Way, but one hundred times more luminous, suggesting that star formation in the early life of these galaxies is a much more vigorous process than typically found in local galaxies. The overlaid contours show the structure of the galaxy as reconstructed from gravitationally lensed observations with the Submillimeter Array.

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/M. Swinbank et al.



C: Chance discovery reveals star factories in the distant Universe

This composite image shows the discovery of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102. Left: a view of galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 (centre), which is gravitationally lensing SMM J2135-0102. Top right: SMM J2135-0102 was first discovered in submillimetre-wavelength observations (shown in red) with the LABOCA camera on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope. Bottom right: follow-up observations with the Submillimeter Array (in red) revealed the clouds where stars are forming in the galaxy with great precision. Our view of the galaxy is magnified by gravitational lensing, which also produces a doubling of the image; the apparent eight regions in the Submillimeter Array observations actually represent four distinct regions of star formation in the galaxy.

Credit: ESO/APEX/M. Swinbank et al.; NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope & SMA



D: The region around SMM J2135-0102 and the galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217

This image shows the wider region around the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102, which is being gravitationally lensed by the galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217. The image, from the Second Generation Digitized Sky Survey, covers a field of view of 4.5 x 4 degrees.

Credit: ESO & DSS2



E: The galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 lensing SMM J2135-0102

This image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 (centre), which is gravitationally lensing the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102. The image is 5 arcminutes across, and contains data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.