Seventeen molecular clouds are identified in a Milky Way progenitor at z = 1.036, with higher masses, surface densities and supersonic turbulence than present-day analogues. Their properties reflect the hostile ambient interstellar conditions prevalent in distant galaxies and suggest they formed by fragmentation of a turbulent galactic gas disk.
- Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky
- Johan Richard
- Paul P. van der Werf
