The Universe is a destructive place, and we like to remind folks that the Universe is always trying to kill us. Sometimes, however, things you might only expect to cause destruction can actually trigger creation. For instance, black holes. 

In new research appearing in the journal Nature and led by Ignacio Martín-Navarro, researchers describe how the flares and outbursts of supermassive black holes in the centers of large galaxies can clear the way for orbiting dwarf systems to form stars. Normally, these small, low-mass systems charge into the thin gas on the outskirts of massive galaxies and experience an effect called Ram Pressure Stripping. Essentially, it’s like holding a dandelion gone to seed out the window of a car and watching it get stripped of its fluff: the gas just pushes everything not held tightly out of the system. When black holes misbehave and outburst, however, they push all that thin gas out of the region above and below a galaxy, allowing the satellite galaxies in polar orbits to keep forming stars. 

So there you go. One black hole’s destruction means surviving star formation for passing dwarfs with just the right orbit.

More Information

Max Planck Institute press release

“Anisotropic satellite galaxy quenching modulated by black hole activity,” Ignacio Martín-Navarro et al., 2021 June 9, Nature