Supermassive black hole feeding and feedback observed on subparsec scales
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- Takuma Izumi
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
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- Keiichi Wada
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan.
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- Masatoshi Imanishi
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
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- Kouichiro Nakanishi
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
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- Kotaro Kohno
- Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 181-0015, Japan.
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- Yuki Kudoh
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
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- Taiki Kawamuro
- Cluster for Pioneering Research, RIKEN, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
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- Shunsuke Baba
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan.
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- Naoki Matsumoto
- Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan.
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- Yutaka Fujita
- Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan.
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- Konrad R. W. Tristram
- European Southern Observatory, Vitacura, Santiago 19001, Chile.
説明
<jats:p>Active galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their center that grows by accreting matter from the surrounding galaxy. The accretion process in about the central 10 parsecs has not been directly resolved in previous observations because of the small apparent angular sizes involved. We observed the active nucleus of the Circinus Galaxy using submillimeter interferometry. A dense inflow of molecular gas was evident on subparsec scales. We calculated that less than 3% of this inflow is accreted by the black hole, with the rest being ejected by multiphase outflows, providing feedback to the host galaxy. Our observations also reveal a dense gas disk surrounding the inflow that is gravitationally unstable, which drives the accretion into about the central 1 parsec.</jats:p>
収録刊行物
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- Science
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Science 382 (6670), 554-559, 2023-11-03
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
