Webb measures extreme gas outflows from distant 'dead' galaxies
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have measured the most powerful gas outflow ever recorded from a "dead" galaxy outside our cosmic neighborhood and found that even outflows this extreme may not be enough to permanently shut down star formation.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the most powerful gas outflows ever recorded from a distant dead galaxy. These outflows were found in 13 out of 23 massive quiescent galaxies, with seven of them showing clear signs of gas moving away from the galaxy. The rate of these outflows exceeded the galaxy's star formation rate, but most of the gas is likely to return to the galaxy within millions to hundreds of millions of years, limiting its ability to permanently shut down star formation.
One galaxy, DD-236, displayed the most extreme outflow rate observed beyond the nearby universe. The study, led by Pengpei Zhu from the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen, was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on August 14. The researchers used specific absorption signatures in the light of these galaxies to trace the neutral gas being expelled.
While the exact mechanisms driving these outflows are still unclear, they may be linked to a combination of previous active galactic nucleus activity and recent mergers.
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