How a Galaxy Is Starving for Space – “We’ve Found the Culprit”

The universe can be cruel, but this latest discovery takes it to a whole new level: A black hole could kill its host galaxy.

CAMBRIDGE – A supermassive black hole resides at the center of most large galaxies – including the Milky Way. This black hole could have a major impact on its host galaxy, a new study using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown.

An international research team led by the University of Cambridge has examined a galaxy in the early universe that formed about two billion years after the Big Bang. The galaxy, GS-10578 (the “Pablo Galaxy”), is roughly the size of the Milky Way and hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. But unlike most known galaxies from this early period in the universe, the “Pablo Galaxy” almost “dead” – It almost no longer forms new stars.

The black hole has cut off the galaxy's food supply.

“Based on previous observations, we knew that this galaxy was in an extinction state: it wasn't forming many stars, even though it was large, and we think there was a connection between the black hole and the end of star formation,” He explained The study was led by Francesco Diogenio of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge.

Only the James Webb Space Telescope was able to examine the relationship between the black hole and the end of star formation in the galaxy in greater detail. Using the telescope, the research team quickly determined that the galaxy was ejecting large amounts of gas at speeds of 1,000 kilometers per second. At that extreme speed, the gas is fast enough to escape the galaxy’s gravity. The black hole ejecting the wind is responsible. The study In the specialized magazine Astronomy Nature Published.

“Black hole kills galaxy and keeps it inactive”

“In the early Universe, most galaxies form many stars, so it is interesting to see such a massive, dead galaxy at this time,” explains co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino, also from the Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “If it had enough time to reach this enormous size, the process that stopped star formation likely happened relatively quickly.”

One thing is certain: The amount of gas the galaxy is emitting is greater than the amount of gas the galaxy needs to continue forming new stars. So the black hole is starving its host galaxy. Or as Diogenio puts it: “We’ve found the culprit. The black hole is killing the galaxy and keeping it inactive by cutting off the food source the galaxy needs to form new stars.” Black holes have previously been observed to boost star formation in more than one galaxy.

Black hole kills its host galaxy

Theoretical models have already predicted that black holes can “kill” their galaxy – but before the Webb Space Telescope, this effect had not been directly observed. “We knew that black holes had a huge impact on galaxies, and that it was probably common for them to stop star formation, but until Webb we had not been able to confirm this directly,” explains Maiolino. The new space telescope, he says, helps to make “a huge leap forward in our ability to study the early universe and its evolution.” (unpaid invoice)