CONSTRAINTS ON THE COSMIC STAR-FORMATION HISTORY FROM THE FAR-INFRARED BACKGROUND

Studies of the far-infrared extragalactic background (FIRE) provide in formation on the star formation history of the Universe which is compl ementary to that given by optical observations, The upper limits on th e FIRE intensity resulting from recent analyses of COBE/FIRAS data ent ail interesting constraints on the possibility that most of the star f ormation activity occurring during early phases of galaxy evolution ta kes place within dusty gas clouds, The tentative detection of the FIRE reported by Puget et al. suggests that the star formation and metal p roduction histories might have been substantially different, at high r edshifts, from those inferred from optical data.