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A wobbling black hole ejects gas, robbing the galaxy of new 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 most surprising part: this black hole is far from a power record-holder. Its jet is dozens of times weaker than those of quasars, but even this gentle “breath” is enough to freeze star formation in an entire galaxy.
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.