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D. Elbaz (CEA-Saclay/Service d'Astrophysique)
The recent detection of a strong cosmic infrared (IR) background by the COBE satellite indicates that at least 50 % of the stellar light radiated in the past history of the universe was absorbed by dust and reemitted in the infrared. Understanding the origin of this IR background has become a key question in the process of understanding the star formation history of galaxies.
We will present the results of a campaign of deep ISOCAM surveys at 15 microns implying a rapid increase of the fraction of luminous IR galaxies (L>1011~L\sun) with increasing redshift and allowing to resolve about 70 % of the cosmic IR background into individual galaxies with redshifts ranging from z=0.4 to 1.3. We will briefly summarize the nature of these galaxies, which represent a common phase in the evolution of galaxies in general.