A population of galaxies whose light is dominated at all wavelengths from B to K by a very young stellar population has been found in an extremely deep optical and IR small-field survey. These galaxies must represent one of the main star-forming epochs in the history of the universe and approximately 10%-100% of the metals must have formed in them. They must have a redshift z < 3.5 and may constitute either a genuine protogalaxy population or a rejuvenation phase of galaxies that formed earlier. The faint I band star counts in the field eliminate the possibility that the Galactic dark halo may be composed of hydrogen-burning main-sequence stars.
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Cowie et al. (1988) studied this question.
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