Astronomers discover black hole slowly 'starving' its host galaxy.

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"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." – Albert Einstein

Astronomers have discovered a black hole that's gradually depleting its host galaxy of gas, the essential fuel for star formation. By siphoning away this gas, the black hole is effectively halting the galaxy's ability to create new stars, slowly leading to the galaxy's decline and eventual "death." This finding offers insights into how black holes impact galaxy evolution over time.

Astronomers, using the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, have confirmed that supermassive black holes can deprive their host galaxies of the essential fuel required for star formation.

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to verify that supermassive black holes can deplete the gas necessary for star formation in their host galaxies.

An international team, co-led by the University of Cambridge, observed a galaxy similar in size to the Milky Way, existing around two billion years after the Big Bang. Like many large galaxies, this one has a supermassive black hole at its core. However, the galaxy is largely inactive in terms of star formation.

Co-lead author Dr. Francesco D'Eugenio from Cambridge's Kavli Institute for Cosmology noted that previous observations had indicated this galaxy was "quenched," meaning it wasn’t forming many stars despite its size. There was an expected connection between the black hole and the cessation of star formation, but only with Webb's detailed observations could they confirm this link.

Named GS-10578, or ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’ after a colleague, this galaxy has a mass roughly 200 billion times that of the Sun, with most of its stars forming 12.5 to 11.5 billion years ago.

Co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino also from the Kavli Institute explained that most early galaxies were actively forming stars, making it unusual to see such a large, inactive galaxy at that time. The rapid halt in star formation suggests a swift process was involved.

Webb detected large amounts of gas being ejected from the galaxy at 1,000 kilometers per second, fast enough to escape its gravitational pull. These winds are being driven by the black hole.

While the galaxy has the usual outflows of hot gas associated with black holes, Webb also revealed a denser, colder component of gas that is invisible to other telescopes. Webb’s advanced sensitivity allowed it to detect these dark gas clouds because they obscure some of the light from the background galaxy.

The amount of gas being expelled is greater than what the galaxy needs to continue forming stars, essentially causing the galaxy to ‘starve.’ The study was published in Nature Astronomy.

D’Eugenio stated, "We’ve identified the cause – the black hole is cutting off the galaxy’s fuel for star formation."

Although previous models had suggested that black holes could halt star formation, this had not been directly observed until now. Moreover, contrary to earlier predictions that galaxy shapes would be destroyed in the process, the stars in this disc-shaped galaxy remain in orderly motion.

Maiolino emphasized that while black holes are known to have major effects on galaxies, Webb has allowed them to directly confirm that they can stop star formation. He praised Webb as a major leap forward in understanding the early universe.

Future observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) will focus on detecting the coldest and darkest gas in the galaxy, to determine if any remaining fuel for star formation exists and to study the broader impact of the black hole.

The research was partially funded by the Royal Society, the European Union, the European Research Council, and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

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Source: sciencedaily‍