A Molecular gas rich GRB host galaxy at the peak of cosmic star formation

Understand

We report the detection of the CO(3-2) emission line from the host galaxy of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) 080207 at $z$ = 2.086.

• This is the first detection of molecular gas in emission from a GRB host galaxy beyond redshift 1.
• We find this galaxy to be rich in molecular gas with a mass of $1.1 \times 10^{11}\,\rm M_{\odot}$ assuming $\alpha_{\rm CO}=$ 4.36 $\rm M_{\odot}(\rm K\,km\,s^{-1}\,pc^2)^{-1}$.
• The molecular gas mass fraction of the galaxy is $\sim$ 0.5, typical of star forming galaxies (SFGs) with similar stellar masses and redshifts.