Summary
The heated gas can’t cool down to make new stars, so the galaxy grows differently.
The jet affects gas only along its path, lighting it up like a cosmic torch.
Key Points
4 points1
Massive black holes launch jets of extremely hot plasma.
2
Jets deposit energy into the circumgalactic medium.
3
Energy stops the gas from cooling and collapsing into stars.
4
This process influences the galaxy’s evolution.
New Words to Learn
6 wordssupermassive black hole
a gigantic space hole at the centre of a galaxy that pulls in lots of matter
jet
a narrow, fast stream of super‑hot particles that shoots out from a black hole
plasma
a super‑hot gas where atoms are split into charged parts
circumgalactic medium
the big cloud of gas that surrounds a galaxy, far beyond its visible stars
ionised
gas that has been given extra energy so its atoms become charged
star formation
the way gas comes together and becomes new stars
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