James Webb Telescope unveils galaxy killer black hole

Published September 17,2024

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Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that supermassive black holes can successfully “kill” galaxies by destroying the fuel wanted for star formation.

An worldwide group led by the University of Cambridge studied a galaxy fashioned two billion years after the Big Bang utilizing the Webb Telescope. This galaxy, which has a supermassive black gap at its heart, was discovered to be “quenched,” which means star formation had largely ceased. The black gap was found to be ejecting fuel from the galaxy at excessive speeds, halting the formation of recent stars.

Dr. Francesco D’Eugenio, a co-leader of the analysis group, defined, “Based on previous observations, we knew that this galaxy had stopped forming stars, and we suspected this was related to the black hole. But we couldn’t confirm this link until Webb.”

This galaxy, formally named GS-10578, can be known as “Pablo’s Galaxy” after one of many observing scientists. The galaxy has a mass roughly 200 billion occasions that of the Sun, and most of its stars have been fashioned between 12.5 and 11.5 billion years in the past.

*GAS FLOW DUE TO THE BLACK HOLE’S INFLUENCE*

Another co-author of the examine, Professor Roberto Maiolino, remarked, “It’s fascinating to see such a large ‘dead’ galaxy so early in the universe. The process that stopped star formation must have happened rapidly.” Observations made with the Webb Telescope present that the galaxy is ejecting giant quantities of fuel at a velocity of 1,000 kilometers per second. This velocity permits the fuel to flee the galaxy’s gravitational pull.

*A BLACK HOLE THAT STOPPED STAR FORMATİON*

The group discovered that the black gap was expelling fuel from the galaxy, which prevented the formation of recent stars. D’Eugenio famous, “This black hole is killing the galaxy by cutting off the ‘nourishment’ it needs to form stars.”

This new discovery sheds extra mild on the affect of black holes on galaxies and brings scientists a step nearer to understanding how black holes can cease star formation in galaxies. The researchers plan to conduct additional observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to find out if there’s nonetheless fuel hidden throughout the galaxy that might help star formation and to make clear how the supermassive black gap is affecting the galaxy’s environment.