Cosmic fountain offers clues to how galaxies evolve

11/6/18

A group of scientists have found a black hole in the centre of a galaxy that is
very far away. It is like a fountain they said. Taking in things and just spitting it back
out. "The black hole is like a pump for the water fountain" is a simile they used to
describe it. Scientists have made an experiment and found out how this "water
fountain pump" works.

The way this effects me or is relevant is that I learned more about black holes.
Black holes can tear up a whole galaxy. They form and then suck up all the planets
and stars in the system. Black holes are very dangerous and don't have a way to be
stopped. Hopefully we don't see one near us anytime soon.

This is according to an international team of scientists who have provided the first
clear and compelling evidence of this process in action.

Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) of telescopes, the

team, which includes researchers from Cardiff University, has observed a
supermassive black hole acting like a 'monumental fountain' in the middle of a galaxy
over a billion light-years from Earth.

At the centre of the galaxy, named Abell 2597, the black hole is drawing in vast stores
of cold molecular gas and then spraying them back out again in an ongoing cycle.

The giant elliptical galaxy Abell 2597 lies at the heart of one of the universe's most
massive structures and has a sprawling cluster of other galaxies surrounding it.

According to the researchers, this entire system operates via a self-regulating feedback
loop. The incoming material provides power for the fountain as it "drains" toward the
central black hole, like water entering the pump of a fountain. This gas then causes
the black hole to ignite with activity, launching high-velocity jets of super-heated
material that shoot out of the galaxy.

As it travels, this material pushes out clumps and streamers of gas into the galaxy's
expansive halo, where it eventually rains back in on the black hole, triggering the
entire process anew.

By studying the location and motion of molecules of carbon monoxide (CO) with ALMA,
which shine brightly in millimetre-wavelength light, the researchers were able to
measure the motion of the gas as it falls in toward the black hole.

It is from these plumes of gas that new stars are formed in galaxies, and the
researchers believe that the process they have observed could be common across the
Cosmic fountain offers clues to how galaxies evolve
11/6/18
Universe and, more importantly, could be crucial to the development of massive
galaxies like this one.

Dr Timothy Davis, from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University,
said: "Galaxy evolution can be pretty chaotic, and big galaxies like this tend to live
hard and die young. For the first time we have been able to observe the full cycle of a
supermassive black hole fountain, that acts to regulate this process, prolonging the
life of galaxies."

"The supermassive black hole at the centre of this giant galaxy acts like a mechanical
'pump' in a water fountain," said Grant Tremblay, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lead author
on the paper.

"This is one of the first systems in which we find clear evidence for both cold molecular
gas inflow toward the black hole and outflow or uplift from the jets that the black hole
launches."

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cardiff University. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.

Journal Reference:

1. G. R. Tremblay, F. Combes, J. B. R. Oonk, H. R. Russell, M. A. McDonald, M.

Gaspari, B. Husemann, P. E. J. Nulsen, B. R. McNamara, S. L. Hamer, C. P.
O’Dea, S. A. Baum, T. A. Davis, M. Donahue, G. M. Voit, A. C. Edge, E. L.
Blanton, M. N. Bremer, E. Bulbul, T. E. Clarke, L. P. David, L. O. V. Edwards,
D. Eggerman, A. C. Fabian, W. Forman, C. Jones, N. Kerman, R. P. Kraft, Y. Li,
M. Powell, S. W. Randall, P. Salomé, A. Simionescu, Y. Su, M. Sun, C. M. Urry,
A. N. Vantyghem, B. J. Wilkes, J. A. ZuHone. A Galaxy-scale Fountain of Cold
Molecular Gas Pumped by a Black Hole. The Astrophysical Journal, 2018; 865
(1): 13 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aad6dd

Citation: “Cosmic Fountain Offers Clues to How Galaxies Evolve.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 6

Nov. 2018, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181106103840.htm.