Colorado: Black Hole & Stellar Winds Shut Down Star Formation in Galaxy

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Colorado: Black Hole & Stellar Winds Shut Down Star Formation in Galaxy

Post by bystander » Thu Apr 19, 2018 3:50 pm

Black Hole and Stellar Winds Form Giant Butterfly
and Shut Down Star Formation in Galaxy

University of Colorado | 2018 Apr 18
Researchers at CU Boulder have completed an unprecedented “dissection” of twin galaxies in the final stages of merging.

The new study, led by research associate Francisco Müller-Sánchez, explores a galaxy called NGC 6240. While most galaxies in the universe hold only one supermassive black hole at their center, NGC 6240 contains two—and they’re circling each other in the last steps before crashing together.

The research reveals how gases ejected by those spiraling black holes, in combination with gases ejected by stars in the galaxy, may have begun to power down NGC 6240’s production of new stars. Müller-Sánchez’s team also shows how these “winds” have helped to create NGC 6240’s most tell-tale feature: a massive cloud of gas in the shape of a butterfly. ...

Galaxies like NGC 6240—which play host to two well-fed supermassive black holes of a class called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs)—are relatively rare. They have attracted a lot of attention, however, because they provide a snapshot of an important stage in the evolution of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Scientists believe that such galaxies are created from the merger of two parent galaxies.

But NGC 6240 is weird in other ways, Müller-Sánchez said. Unlike the Milky Way, which forms a relatively tidy disk, bubbles and jets of gas shoot off from NGC 6240, extending about 30,000 light years into space and resembling a butterfly in flight. Scientists have suspected that this butterfly may be linked to the galaxy’s twin hearts. ...

Two Separate Outflows in the Dual Supermassive Black Hole System NGC 6240 - F. Müller-Sánchez et al
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