JWST and ALMA Reveal 'Galaxy-Killing' Wind in Early Universe
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), in combination with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has uncovered new evidence about the violent mechanisms that shaped the early universe. Researchers have detected what they describe as a "galaxy-killing" wind—a powerful outflow driven by cosmic mergers between galaxies.
This wind may be the key to solving a long-standing puzzle in cosmology: why many massive galaxies in the early universe stopped forming stars far earlier than theoretical models predicted. Normally, massive galaxies would be expected to continue producing stars over billions of years, but observations suggest many went "quiet" remarkably quickly.
The wind appears to strips galaxies of the gas and dust needed to form new stars, effectively shutting down star formation and "killing" the galaxy. This mechanism driven by galactic collisions could explain the truncated star formation histories observed in early massive galaxies.
The joint JWST and ALMA observations provided both infrared and millimeter-wave perspectives, allowing astronomers to trace the structure and impact of these powerful outflows with unprecedented detail.