NRAO: 'Perfect Storm' Quenching Star Formation

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NRAO: 'Perfect Storm' Quenching Star Formation

Post by bystander » Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:27 pm

'Perfect Storm' Quenching Star Formation around a Supermassive Black Hole
National Radio Astronomy Observatory | ALMA | 2014 Dec 17
High-energy jets powered by supermassive black holes can blast away a galaxy’s star-forming fuel, resulting in so-called "red and dead" galaxies: those brimming with ancient red stars yet containing little or no hydrogen gas to create new ones.

Now astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that black holes don’t have to be nearly so powerful to shut down star formation. By observing the dust and gas at the center of NGC 1266, a nearby lenticular galaxy with a relatively modest central black hole, the astronomers have detected a “perfect storm” of turbulence that is squelching star formation in a region that would otherwise be an ideal star factory.

This turbulence is stirred up by jets from the galaxy’s central black hole slamming into an incredibly dense envelope of gas. This dense region, which may be the result of a recent merger with another smaller galaxy, blocks nearly 98 percent of material propelled by the jets from escaping the galactic center. ...

Previous observations of NGC 1266 revealed a broad outflow of gas from the galactic center traveling up to 400 kilometers per second. Alatalo and her colleagues estimate that this outflow is as forceful as the simultaneous supernova explosion of 10,000 stars. The jets, though powerful enough to stir the gas, are not powerful enough to give it the velocity it needs to escape from the system. ...

Suppression of Star Formation in NGC 1266 - K. Alatalo et al
  • arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1410.4556 > 16 Oct 2014 (v1), 29 Oct 2014 (v2)

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