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Black hole jets trigger both the compression and expansion of clouds that can form stars

The internal and external pressure of interstellar medium clouds were measured by modelling of Atacama Large Millimeter Array and Very Large Telescope data. Pressure gradients indicated that both cloud collapse and expansion are possible in jet-driven outflows from black holes, potentially altering the star formation rate of their galaxies.

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Fig. 1: Pressure maps of the gas in IC 5063.

References

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This is a summary of: Dasyra, K. M. et al. Insights into the collapse and expansion of molecular clouds in outflows from observable pressure gradients. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01725-9 (2022).

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Black hole jets trigger both the compression and expansion of clouds that can form stars. Nat Astron 6, 1013–1014 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01726-8

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