From The Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
4.23.24
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This research published in Nature is the first direct confirmation that supermassive black holes are capable of shutting down galaxies…
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In summary
-New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope that suggest black holes rapidly shut off star-formation in massive galaxies by explosively removing large amounts of gas.
-Swinburne was part of the international team found that more than 90 per cent of the galactic wind is made of neutral gas.
-This work is the first direct confirmation that supermassive black holes are capable of shutting down galaxies.
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New research published in Nature showcases new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that suggest black holes rapidly shut off star-formation in massive galaxies by explosively removing large amounts of gas.
The international team found that more than 90 per cent of the galactic wind is made of neutral gas, and therefore was virtually invisible in previous studies. This work is the first direct confirmation that supermassive black holes are capable of shutting down galaxies.
The difference between this new study and previous works is found in the type of gas observed: until now it was only possible to detect ionized gas, which is warm; while the JWST was able to also detect neutral gas, which is cold.
Dr Rebecca Davies from Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing led the Australian team behind this discovery and helped to find the powerful black-hole driven outflow in a distant massive galaxy with a very low level of star-formation.
“The outflow is removing gas fasting than gas is being converted into stars, indicating that the outflow is likely to have a very significant impact on the evolution of the galaxy. Our findings provide new evidence to indicate that black-hole driven outflows are able to rapidly shut-off or ‘quench’ star-formation in massive galaxies.”
When star formation is quenched, it means that a galaxy has stopped forming stars. It represents the transformation between a galaxy that is actively forming stars, allowing it to grow and change, and a galaxy that is ‘dead’ and static. Quenching is therefore a fundamental process in the life cycle of galaxies. However, astronomers still don’t understand in detail what leads galaxies to stop forming stars.
Alongside internationally recognized researchers, particularly lead author Sirio Belli from the University of Bologna, Dr Davies studied a galaxy that is located at an enormous distance from Earth whose light took more than ten billion years to reach us.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) – supermassive black holes consuming large amounts of gas – can drive outflows from galaxies. The most powerful AGN drive very massive outflows that could possibly remove all of the gas from their host galaxies in a relatively ‘short’ amount of time and cause star-formation to cease.
“The JWST made it possible for us to observe the cooler, neutral gas phase of normal AGN-driven outflows in distant galaxies. In the galaxy studied, we found that the outflow rate in the neutral phase was ~100 times larger than the outflow rate in the ionized phase, therefore revealing a lot of outflowing mass that was previously invisible.”
Dr Davies says the JWST can be used to detect a much larger fraction of the outflows, whereas previous ionized gas observations were only able to detect about one per cent.
“Before the JWST, we were only scraping the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the outflowing mass.”
The team are excited for what they might discover as they analyse more galaxies in the future.
See the full article here .
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The Swinburne University of Technology (AU) is an Australian public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne in order to serve those without access to further education in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Its main campus is located in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne which is located 7.5 km from the Melbourne central business district.
Swinburne has a number of research institutes:
Data Science Research Institute
Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute
Manufacturing Futures Research Institute
Smart Cities Research Institute
Social Innovation Research Institute
Space Technology and Industry Institute
Swinburne has been placed very highly for computer science engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering in Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
It performs fairly well in the Global Nature Index ranking, especially when compared with universities in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the CWTS Leiden rankings. Swinburne ranked very high in the world for Mathematics and Computer Science. Swinburne ranked high in Australia in the European Commission-sponsored global U-Multirank ranking, behind Australian National University.
In the Student Experience Survey, Swinburne was ranked very high in Victoria for the “entire education experience” for undergraduate students, with an overall satisfaction rate of 80 per cent. The survey showed that 69.7% of all Swinburne graduates found full-time jobs 4 months after graduation.
Swinburne is ranked very highly in the fields of computer science and engineering, automation and control and civil engineering by the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Swinburne is also ranked very highly in Australia in the world for art and design in the QS World University Rankings, making it one of the top art and design schools.
The university was listed very highly for art and design subject area by the QS World Rankings of Universities by Subject.
Swinburne also performs very well in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, with Swinburne ranked very highly for engineering and technology and computer science and physical sciences. Social Sciences ranked very highly, Business & Economics ranked very highly and Clinical, pre-clinical & health positioned very highly. Swinburne has improved in the subject areas of physical sciences, business and economics, computer sciences and engineering and technology in the Times Ranking.
Swinburne Business School is a Member of The Centre for Social Impact. Swinburne has won the Australian Business Award on Business Innovation of the World Business Awards. Swinburne’s Faculty of Business and Law (Swinburne Business School) ranked very highly in Economists and Institutions in Australia and high in the Business School in the world.
Australia’s only Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) is located in Swinburne. Swinburne Business School issues the quarterly Australian Leadership Index. Swinburne ranked very highly in the Business & Management Studies by QS World University Rankings, very highly in Business and Economics in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and Business Administration ranks very highly by Shanghai Ranking. There were four Swinburne Master programs that ranked very highly worldwide by Eduniversal. Swinburne’s online MBA ranks in the Tier One internationally by the CEO Magazine . Swinburne is affiliated with Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative and accredited by AACSB and Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).
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