The supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 1068 is halting the formation of new stars by heating gas in star-forming molecular clouds
An international team led by researchers from Nagoya University in Japan has found the first major chemical evidence that a galaxy’s central supermassive black hole can prevent formation of new starsthus hindering the evolution of the galaxy itself.
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Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and advanced machine learning techniques, scientists analyzed the molecular chemistry of the galaxy NGC 1068 (M77). It is a galaxy located 51.4 million light-years from Earth.
The center of the M77 is home to a supermassive black hole feeding on matter and emitting two jets of particles and radiation, one from each pole of the object. When these characteristics are present, scientists call it an active galactic nucleus.
Looking at the ALMA data, the team found a significant flow of molecular gas. It appears to have been generated by jets from the black hole, the result of a zone of shock waves where the jet interacts with the galactic disk. This phenomenon increases the temperature there and interferes with the molecular clouds.
To form new stars, galaxies depend on these gas-filled clouds and, therefore, the impact of the jets on them can have important implications. In the case of M77 (and perhaps many other galaxies) the jets and shock waves radiate intense ultraviolet and X-ray rays capable of destroying clouds.
In other words, the heat produced by the high-energy radiation around the black hole is blocking the birth of new stars. This mechanism has been considered before and now it is strengthened with the first direct and relatively difficult to question observations.
However, this may not be the only contribution of active black holes to their galaxies: previous studies have already shown some cases where the interaction between a supermassive black hole in a galactic center does the opposite, helping in the formation of new stars.
The new study was published in The astrophysics diary.
Source: ALMA Observatory
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Source: Terra
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