How Supermassive Black Holes Shape Galaxies

Abstract

We often think of black holes as mysterious objects that swallow everything that passes by them—from dust to entire stars. In reality, black holes “eat” in a messy way, while spinning around super quickly. They do not swallow their whole “meal” (such as interstellar gas and dust) in a mouthful. Part of it rotates around the spinning black hole, like a merry-go-round, and is eventually thrown outward as very bright, energetic streams of particles called jets. Supermassive black holes the centers of galaxies can create jets that travel very far and affect the birth of baby stars! In this article, we will describe some of the things we know about black holes, including how astronomers found out about black hole jets using powerful telescopes. We will also mention some of the things we still do not understand about black holes and their jets.