Large Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Ancestors of Milky Way-Mass Galaxies 9 Billion Years Ago
Journal article published in 2016 by
Casey Papovich,
Caroline Straatman,
Ivo Labbé,
Kim-Vy Tran,
Karl Glazebrook,
Ryan Quadri,
Georgios Bekiaris,
Mark Dickinson,
Steven Finkelstein,
David Fisher,
Hanae Inami,
Rachael Livermore,
Lee Spitler 
Abstract
The gas accretion and star-formation histories of galaxies like the Milky Way remain an outstanding problem in astrophysics. Observations show that 8 billion years ago, the progenitors to Milky Way-mass galaxies were forming stars 30 times faster than today and predicted to be rich in molecular gas, in contrast with low present-day gas fractions ($