This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Astronomers have found that a nearby galaxy's black hole is blasting out a far more powerful and hidden gas outflow than previously realized. Studying NGC 1068, a well-known galaxy with an actively feeding black hole at its center, researchers combined new infrared observations with existing data to map how the black hole's energy is reshaping the surrounding gas.
The results are reported in a paper published Aug. 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics. As matter falls into supermassive black holes, it releases huge amounts of energy, driving powerful winds or outflows from the galaxy's center. These outflows can heat the surrounding gas, expel gas and stir up the star-forming material in the galaxy, preventing it from forming new stars.
They can also cut off the gas supply to the central black hole, regulating how galaxies evolve. Estimating how much gas is expelled can help test theoretical models of galaxy evolution against real observations. However, much of the outflowing gas may be hidden behind thick dust, which blocks optical observations and makes detection difficult.
In this study, researchers led by Cosimo Marconcini of the University of Florence investigated the outflows from the actively accreting black hole at the center of NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77 or the Squid Galaxy. It is a barred spiral galaxy located around 45 million light-years away (about 265 quintillion miles). Its supermassive black hole weighs somewhere between 8 million and 17 million solar masses.
The team used mid-infrared observations from the James Webb Space Telescope because mid-infrared light passes through dust far more easily, offering a chance to see gas that is invisible to optical telescopes. They combined the new JWST/MIRI integral field spectroscopy with archival optical data (VLT/MUSE) and millimeter-wave data (ALMA). The mid-infrared spectroscopy revealed more than 20 different ionized-gas emission lines and 7 warm molecular hydrogen transitions.
The researchers used optical and mid-infrared emission-line ratios to determine which mechanism dominates. They found that the outflow is genuinely powered by the AGN, not star formation. They then found that the outflow has two distinct components: one visible to normal optical telescopes and a second, dust-shrouded component detected only in infrared light.
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