Infalling gas in a Lyman-α blob

Yiping Ao , Zheng Zheng , Christian Henkel , Shiyu Nie , Alexandre Beelen (1) , Renyue Cen , Mark Dijkstra , Paul J. Francis , James E. Geach , Kotaro Kohno , Matthew D. Lehnert (2) , Karl M. Menten , Junzhi Wang , Axel Weiss

1 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
2 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

Lyman-α blobs (LABs) are spatially extended nebulae of emission in the Lyman-α (Lyα) line of hydrogen, seen at high redshifts^1,2, and most commonly found in the dense environment of star-forming galaxies^3,4. A recent study showed that nearly 100% of the sky is covered by Lyα emission around high-redshift galaxies^5-7. The origin of Lyα emission in the LABs is still unclear and under debate⁸. It may be powered by photoionization involving galactic superwinds/outflows, resonant scattering of Lyα photons from starbursts or active galactic nuclei^9-16, or by cooling radiation from cold streams of gas accreting onto galaxies^17,18, as demonstrated by recent simulations¹⁹. Here we analyse the gas kinematics within a LAB, providing rare observational evidence for infalling gas. This is consistent with the release of gravitational accretion energy as cold streams radiate Lyα photons. It also provides direct evidence for possible cold streams feeding the central galaxies. The mass of the infalling gas is not important in comparison to the gas mass consumed by star formation, and is also not the major powering source of Lyα emission, but it hints at another mechanism to explain the origin of the extended Lyα emission around young galaxies.

Keywords: Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Yiping Ao, Zheng Zheng, Christian Henkel, Shiyu Nie, Alexandre Beelen, et al.. Infalling gas in a Lyman-α blob. Nature Astronomy, 2020, 4, pp.670-674. ⟨10.1038/s41550-020-1033-3⟩. ⟨insu-03744534⟩