Black Hole Jets Suppress Star Formation Across Gas Halos 10–20 Times Galaxy Size
Updated
Updated · dst.gov.in · Sep 25
Black Hole Jets Suppress Star Formation Across Gas Halos 10–20 Times Galaxy Size
2 articles · Updated · dst.gov.in · Sep 25
Summary
A new study found supermassive black hole jets can heat and ionize the circumgalactic medium, cutting off the cool gas galaxies need to form new stars.
Researchers detected the signal only along the jet’s path, not when averaging all directions, indicating the jets affect halo gas anisotropically rather than uniformly.
The strongest emission appeared in two zones: near the edge of the stellar disk, where the jet first hits the halo, and at the CGM’s outer boundary after the slowed jet deposits more energy.
The result offers a concrete mechanism for a long-standing puzzle—how a black hole as small as a solar system can regulate a galaxy containing roughly 100 billion stellar systems.