Galaxy Formation and Evolution

Submillimeter

• Optical

• ALMA will revolutionize our understanding of the Formation of Galaxies in the early Universe

• mm/submm is a vital new window on the distant Universe
• unobscured view of star-forming galaxies, at wavelengths containing most of the luminosity of the distant Universe
• ALMA’s sensitivity and angular resolution are essential to realize this potential
• ALMA’s scientific contributions will include studies of the earliest galaxies, an accounting of the bolometric luminosity of the distant Universe, and the evolution of galaxies, quasars and the elements over cosmic time

• « We are, by definition, in the very center of the observable region.
• We know our immediate neighborhood rather intimately. With
• increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly.
• Eventually, we reach the dim boundary, the utmost limits of our
• Telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among
• ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely
• more substantial.
• The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are
• exhausted, need we pass on the dreamy realms of speculation. »
• Edwin Hubble, The Realm of Nebulae (1936)