A Spinning Top at the Galaxy’s Core Snuffs Out Stars ⚡ экспресс
Reproducing the observed properties of galaxies in cosmological simulations requires feedback from active nuclei, but the temporal and energetic scales of these processes are poorly constrained. Based on a combination of optical, infrared, submillimeter, and radio observations of the active galaxy VV 340a with a low-power jet, jet precession with a period of (8.2±5.5)×10⁵ years has been discovered, along with a gas outflow rate of 19.4±7.9 solar masses per year. The jet heats the gas with shock waves, forming highly ionized plasma extending several kiloparsecs from the nucleus. The outflow removes enough gas from the galaxy to affect the star formation rate.
At the center of the galaxy VV 340a lurks a supermassive black hole. It spews a jet of matter that doesn’t fly straight but wobbles, like the axis of a slowing spinning top. One full wobble takes about 820,000 years. The reason: the material falling onto the black hole is unevenly twisted, so it rotates in jerks.
This swaying whirlwind pushes superheated gas out of the galaxy—each year, roughly 19 solar masses escape. The hydrogen in it is so hot that it glows, and that glow lets spectral analysis measure the gas speed. It turns out the gas travels thousands of light-years away.
The gas swept out by the jet is the raw material for stars. Without it, star formation sputters out. So a relatively modest black hole governs the life of a huge stellar system.
🎯 In one full wobble cycle, the jet ejects about 16 million solar masses—more than the mass of many globular star clusters.