A Spinning Top at the Galaxy’s Core Snuffs Out Stars ⚡ экспресс
Astronomers, combining optical, infrared, submillimeter, and radio observations, studied the galaxy VV 340a with a low-power jet. They discovered jet precession with a period of (8.2±5.5)×10⁵ years and a gas outflow of 19.4±7.9 solar masses per year. The shock wave ionizes the gas, forming a plasma cloud on kiloparsec scales. This outflow is enough to affect the star formation rate. The jet, like a cosmic spinning top, blows away the building material for future stars.
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.