In a recent study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope found supermassive black holes suppressing star formation in ancient galaxies 11 billion light years away.
This discovery explains how massive galaxy clusters evolved into the dormant, giant elliptical galaxies seen today, shedding light on the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies.
Galaxy clusters are home to many giant elliptical galaxies that have completed their growth and are not forming stars. However, it is still unclear what shutdowns star formation. The answer now seems to be supermassive black holes, which slow star formation and help to transition the star formations into galaxies.
Understanding how galaxies form and complete their growth is an area of fundamental focus in astrophysics. The dense regions of the universe, like galaxy clusters, are dominated by giant elliptical galaxies: massive, ancient galaxies that consist of old stars.
The reason why supermassive black holes appear to play a key role is due to their intense energy which can suppress the gas supply to galaxies.
Against this backdrop, an international team of researchers investigated massive galaxies in an ancient galaxy cluster known as the Spiderweb protocluster, located 11 billion light years away, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The research was led by Associate Professor Rhythm Shimakawa from Waseda University, Japan (Shimakawa is an Associate Professor at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) and Center for Data Science). Located in the heart of Tokyo, Waseda University is a leading private research university.
Also involved were: Dr. Yusei Koyama from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; Prof. Tadayuki Kodama from Tohoku University, Japan; Dr. Helmut Dannerbauer and Dr. J. M. Perez-Martinez from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna, Spain.
The scientists succeeded in obtaining high-resolution maps of the recombination lines of hydrogen, which indicate the activity of star formation and supermassive black holes, through the Near-Infrared Camera mounted on JWST. The JWST Near-Infrared Camera has a spatial resolution ten times better than previous telescopes in the near-infrared wavelength around 4 microns.
Detailed analysis showed that massive galaxies with active supermassive black holes exhibit no sign of star formation, meaning that their growth is severely hampered by supermassive black holes. The results support the theoretical prediction that the formation of giant elliptical galaxies is linked with supermassive black holes activity in the past.
“The Spiderweb protocluster has been studied by our team for more than 10 years using the Subaru Telescope and other facilities. With the new JWST data, we are now able to ‘answer the questions’ of understanding and predicting galaxy formation that we have accumulated,” remarks Dr. Shimakawa in a statement sent to Digital Journal.
He adds further: “This study marks a significant step forward in expanding our understanding of the co-evolution of SMBHs and galaxies in celestial cities.”
The study is titled “Spider-Webb: JWST Near Infrared Camera resolved galaxy star formation and nuclear activities in the Spiderweb protocluster at z = 2.16.”
