


The effect that this activity has on the host galaxy is known as AGN feedback, and one of its properties are galactic winds: this is gas from the centre of the galaxy being driven out by the energy released by the active nucleus. These winds can reach velocities of up to thousands of kilometres per second, and in the most energetic AGNs, for example the quasars, which can clean out the centres of the galaxies impeding the formation of new stars. It has been shown that the evolution of the star formation over cosmological timescales cannot be explained without the existence of a regulating mechanism.



"EMIR has allowed us to study the winds of ionized and molecular gas from this quasar by using the infrared range. This analysis is very important because they don't always show similar properties, which tells us a great deal about how these winds are produced and how they affect their host galaxies", explains Ramos Almeida. The study of this and other local quasars will allow us to understand what was happening in galaxies when they were younger and when they were forming their structures which we see today.

Based on the new data obtained with EMIR, the team has discovered that the ionized wind is faster than the molecular wind, reaching velocities of up to 1,200 km/s. However it would be the molecular wind which is emptying the gas reservoirs of the galaxy (up to 176 solar masses per year). "New observations with ALMA will let us confirm this estimate", explained José Acosta Pulido, a researcher at the IAC and co-author of this study.


Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)