A distant galaxy, similar to our Milky Way, is blowing gas into space like a hair dryer blowing dust off a table. Seven beams of light from an even more distant object pierced this gas cloud, and astronomers saw that the gas flow is narrow, like a jet from a hose, not wide like a fan.
The gas speed reaches 239 kilometers per second—200 times faster than a passenger airplane. But even that speed isn't enough to break free from the galaxy's gravitational embrace. The gas will likely slow down and fall back, like a ball thrown upward.
The discovery was made thanks to a lucky accident: the distant galaxy in the foreground bent the light from an even more distant object, creating a cosmic lens. Seven images of that object lined up, each probing the gas cloud at a different point. This allowed astronomers to measure the gas flow both along and across its direction for the first time.
The gas that the galaxy ejects may return like a boomerang. Astronomers found that the flow's speed is insufficient to overcome the galaxy's gravity, so the material will likely fall back and become star-forming material again.