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Science 11 April 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5617, pp. 270 - 274
DOI: 10.1126/science.1081525
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Review

A Fossil Record of Galaxy Encounters

David Elbaz,1* Catherine J. Cesarsky2

The cosmic infrared background (CIRB) is a record of a large fraction of the emission of light by stars and galaxies over time. The bulk of this emission has been resolved by the Infrared Space Observatory camera. The dominant contributors are bright starburst galaxies with redshift z ~ 0.8; that is, in the same redshift range as the active galactic nuclei responsible for the bulk of the x-ray background. At the longest wavelengths, sources of redshift z >= 2 tend to dominate the CIRB. It appears that the majority of present-day stars have been formed in dusty starbursts triggered by galaxy-galaxy interactions and the buildup of large-scale structures.

1 Service d'Astrophysique/CEA, CE Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
2 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: delbaz{at}cea.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)