ASTRONOMY ONLINE - Astronomers know that most galaxies house supermassive black holes in their centers, from the largest galaxies down to small dwarfs. They also know that when supermassive black holes are actively feeding, they can slow or even stop the formation of stars in their home. Although this relationship has been well established for large galaxies, it has not been studied much in dwarf galaxies. Now, researchers have discovered that black holes in dwarf galaxies are capable of shutting down star formation, just like their more massive counterparts.
In larger galaxies, outflows from supermassive black holes have been linked to the shutdown of star formation. But not in dwarf galaxies. “Typically, winds driven by stellar processes [such as supernovae] are common in dwarf galaxies and constitute the dominant process for regulating the amount of gas available in dwarf galaxies for forming stars,” said first author Christina M. Manzano-King at the University of California, Riverside, in a press release.