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Star Factory
Featured on June 15, 2020
An artist's concept depicts a massive young galaxy that is giving birth to millions of stars. Astronomers have recently studied one such galaxy, XMM-2599, which gave birth to huge numbers of stars early in its evolution. Star formation quickly shut down, though, perhaps as a result of a strong "wind" from a supermassive black hole. Radiation from a disk of superhot gas around the black hole could push charged particles away from the black hole, sweeping away any surrounding gas. If the wind is strong enough, it could clear out star-forming gas and dust from the entire galaxy. [NRAO/AUI/NSF/B. Saxton]
