The baryons inside high-redshift halos with virial temperatures T greater t
han or similar to 10(4) K cool radiatively as they condense inside dark mat
ter potential wells. We show that the release of the gravitational binding
energy, over the halo assembly timescale, results in a significant and dete
ctable Ly alpha flux. At the limiting line flux approximate to 10(-19) ergs
s(-1) cm(-2) arcsec(-2) of the Next Generation Space Telescope, several su
fficiently massive halos, with velocity dispersions sigma greater than or s
imilar to 120 km s(-1), would be visible per 4' x 4' field. The halos would
have characteristic angular sizes of approximate to 10 ", would be detecta
ble in a broadband survey out to z approximate to 6-8, and would provide a
direct probe of galaxies in the process of forming. They may be accompanied
by He+ Ly alpha emission at the approximate to 10% level, but remain undet
ectable at other wavelengths. Our predictions are in good agreement with th
e recent finding of two Ly alpha "blobs" at z = 3.1 by Steidel et al.