Black hole jets shape gas around entire galaxies

Astronomers at ASU and RRI used DESI and LOFAR data to show that jets from supermassive black holes ionize gas in the circumgalactic medium along their path rather than uniformly. This may explain why galaxies form fewer stars than expected.

• H-alpha emission strengthened along radio jets, not in all directions
• Data combined hundreds of galaxies from DESI and LOFAR LoTSS
• Magnesium was distributed isotropically and unrelated to jet direction
• Jets affect gas up to hundreds of thousands of light-years away