Black Hole Fireworks in Nearby Galaxy Kicks off 4th of July

In the spirit of the 4th of July, scientists are talking about the dazzling light show that's currently happening in the nearby galaxy Messier 106, as seen by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Herschel Space Observatory.

Except these fireworks are not man-made, but part of a cosmic event occurring in Messier 106's central black hole, in which energetic jets are heating up material in the galaxy and thus making it glow. The jets also power shock waves that are driving gases out of the galaxy's interior.

These gases are responsible for creating new stars, and this new study estimates that so far the shock waves have churned out two-thirds of the gas from the center of Messier 106.

"Jets from the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 106 are having a profound influence on the available gas for making stars in this galaxy," lead author Patrick Ogle, an astrophysicist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement. "This process may eventually transform the spiral galaxy Messier 106 into a lenticular galaxy, depriving it of the raw material to form stars."

Lenticular galaxies are flat disks that are full of old, red stars. And since Messier 106 appears to be losing its star-producing gases, researchers speculate that it's transitioning into an over-the-hill lenticular galaxy.

Messier 106 - also known as NGC 4258 - is 23.5 million light-years away from Earth, and is one of the Milky Way's closest neighbors. Scientists are taking full advantage of its proximity to study their high-powered jets and how they operate.

"Our results demonstrate that these black hole jets can have a significant impact on the evolution of their host galaxies, eventually sterilizing them and making them bereft of the gas needed to form new stars," Ogle added.