NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has recently collected evidence that suggests that supermassive black holes inhibit star formation in mature galaxies.
A team of astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to examine 19 galaxies that are part of the Spider Web Protocluster (one of the best-studied galaxy clusters in the universe), located 11 billion light-years from Earth.
The study found that galaxies that contain supermassive black holes at their centers have lower star formation rates than galaxies that do not contain such massive black holes.
The research findings could help provide insight into galaxy evolution.
Stars form in the universe when large clouds of cool hydrogen gas collapse under their own gravity. As the density of the collapsing cloud increases, its temperature also increases, which ultimately triggers the process of nuclear fission, which creates a star.
