A titanic interstellar medium ejection from a massive starburst galaxy

HST imaging and narrow and broad components ALMA maps of ID2299 (adapted from Puglisi et al. 2021).
HST imaging and narrow and broad components ALMA maps of ID2299 (adapted from Puglisi et al. 2021).
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Authors
A. Puglisi et al.
University of Durham
References
2021 Nature Astronomy 5 319

Feedback-driven winds from star formation or active galactic nuclei might be a relevant channel for the abrupt quenching of star formation in massive galaxies. However, both observations and simulations support the idea that these processes are non-conflictingly co-evolving and self-regulating. Furthermore, evidence of disruptive events that are capable of fast quenching is rare, and constraints on their statistical prevalence are lacking. Here we present a massive starburst galaxy at redshift z=1.4, which is ejecting ~46% of its molecular gas mass at a startling rate of >10,000 solar masses per year. A broad component that is red-shifted from the galaxy emission is detected in four (low and high J) CO and [C I] transitions and in the ionized phase, which ensures a robust estimate of the expelled gas mass. The implied statistics suggest that similar events are potentially a major star-formation quenching channel. However, our observations provide compelling evidence that this is not a feedback-driven wind, but rather material from a merger that has been probably tidally ejected. This finding challenges some literature studies in which the role of feedback-driven winds might be overstated.

News type
Research news
Scope
Science and Technology
Astrophysics
General public
Undergraduate
Scientists
Formation & Evolution of Galaxies (FYEG)

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