Cattaneo A, Faber S M, Binney J, Dekel A, Kormendy J, Mushotzky R, Babul A, Best P N, Brüggen M, Fabian A C, Frenk C S, Khalatyan A, Netzer H, Mahdavi A, Silk J, Steinmetz M, Wisotzki L
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany.
Nature. 2009 Jul 9;460(7252):213-9. doi: 10.1038/nature08135.
Virtually all massive galaxies, including our own, host central black holes ranging in mass from millions to billions of solar masses. The growth of these black holes releases vast amounts of energy that powers quasars and other weaker active galactic nuclei. A tiny fraction of this energy, if absorbed by the host galaxy, could halt star formation by heating and ejecting ambient gas. A central question in galaxy evolution is the degree to which this process has caused the decline of star formation in large elliptical galaxies, which typically have little cold gas and few young stars, unlike spiral galaxies.
几乎所有的大型星系，包括我们自己的星系，都拥有质量从数百万到数十亿个太阳质量不等的中心黑洞。这些黑洞的增长释放出大量能量，为类星体和其他较弱的活动星系核提供动力。如果宿主星系吸收了这一小部分能量，就可能通过加热和喷射周围气体来停止恒星形成。星系演化中的一个核心问题是，这个过程在多大程度上导致了大型椭圆星系中恒星形成的减少，与螺旋星系不同，大型椭圆星系通常几乎没有冷气体和年轻恒星。
