Number 74 (Story #1), April 2, 1992 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein THE INFRARED GALAXY IRAS 10214+4724 may consist mostly of molecular gas rather than stars. 10214+4724 is estimated to have a luminosity 3 x 1014 times greater than our sun, a luminosity rivaling that of the brightest quasars. Last year, the galaxy's spectrum was found to contain a prominent emission line for CO; the redshift of this spectrum, 2.286, is a factor of 10 larger than the redshift for any previous CO emission line. Such a redshift places the galaxy in an epoch of high quasar density; but this era may also have been a time of galaxy mergers, in which molecular gas could have fueled star formation. So, is the prodigious production of infrared radiation the result of star formation, or is a quasar lurking at the core of the galaxy? A new comparison of IRAS 10214+4724 with relatively nearby IR-luminous galaxies does not settle this issue, but does suggest that CO may account for as much as 90% of the mass of 10214+4724. The mass of CO, 2--6 x 1011 solar masses, is as much as that of many large nearby spiral galaxies. (Nature, 26 Mar. 1992.)