2026-05-06 アリゾナ大学
This artist’s concept depicts a distant galaxy with an active quasar at its center. The “quasar winds” are propelling hundreds of solar masses of material outward into the galaxy disk each year. This affects the entire galaxy as the material snowplows into surrounding gas and dust.NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.arizona.edu/news/cosmic-blowtorches-how-quasars-shut-down-star-formation-early-universe#
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10477-9
極めて銀河規模の流出は、光度の高い初期クエーサーによく見られる Extreme galaxy-scale outflows are frequent among luminous early quasars
Weizhe Liu,Xiaohui Fan,Huan Li,Richard Green,Jinyi Yang,Xiangyu Jin,Jianwei Lyu,Maria Pudoka,Yongda Zhu,Eduardo Bañados,Silvia Belladitta,Thomas Connor,Tiago Costa,Roberto Decarli,Anna-Christina Eilers,Hyunsung D. Jun,Madeline A. Marshall,Chiara Mazzucchelli,Jan-Torge Schindler,Yue Shen,Sylvain Veilleux,Julien Wolf,Huanian Zhang,Mingyang Zhuang,… Mingyu Li
Nature Published:06 May 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10477-9
Abstract
The existence of abundant post-starburst and quiescent galaxies just about 1–2 Gyr after the Big Bang challenges our current model of galaxy evolution1,2,3. Cosmological simulations suggest that quasar feedback is likely the most promising mechanism responsible for this rapid quenching4,5,6. Here we report a high detection rate (6/27) of exceptionally fast and powerful galaxy-scale outflows traced by [O iii] emission in z ≈ 5–6 luminous quasars as shown by the James Webb Space Telescope, with velocity up to about 8,400 km s−1 and order-of-magnitude kinetic energy outflow rates up to around 260% of the observed quasar bolometric luminosities. This fraction is >3.9 and 8.8 times that in comparison samples at z ≈ 1.5–3.5 and z < 1, respectively. These extreme outflows are comparable to or even faster than the most rapid [O iii] outflows reported at z ≲ 3, and could reach the circumgalactic medium or even the intergalactic medium. The average kinetic energy outflow rate of our sample is more than 2 dex higher than that of the lower-redshift comparison samples. The substantially higher frequency of outflows with energetics well above the threshold for negative feedback in our sample strongly suggests that quasar feedback plays an important part in efficiently quenching and regulating early massive galaxies.
