Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2018

52 MARCH-APRIL 2018 SPACE CHRONICLES ducted their research by observing the CO and the cold dust of galaxy WISE1029. After detailed analy- sis, surprisingly they found, there is no sign of sig- nificant molecular gas outflow. Furthermore, star- forming activity is neither activated nor suppressed. This indicates that a strong ionized gas outflow launched from the supermassive black hole in WISE1029 neither significantly affect the surround- ing molecular gas nor the star formation. There have been many reports saying that the ion- ized gas outflow driven by the accretion power of a supermassive black hole has an enormous impact on surrounding molecular gas. However, it is a rare case that there is no close interaction between ion- ized and molecular gas as the researchers are re- porting this time. Yoshiki and its team’s result suggests that the radiation from a supermassive black hole does not always affect the molecular gas and star formation of its host galaxy. While their result is making the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes more puzzling, Yoshiki and his team are exciting about revealing the full pic- ture of the scenario. He says that “understanding such co-evolution is crucial for astronomy. By collecting sta- tistical data of this kind of galaxies and continuing in more follow-up observations using ALMA, we hope to reveal the truth.” E mission from carbon monoxide (green) and cold dust (red) in WISE1029 observed by ALMA. The image size is 3 square arcsecond. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Toba et al.] center in which is the supermassive black hole ion- izes the surrounding gas, even affecting the molec- ular gas that is the ingredient of star formation. The strong radiation activates or suppresses the star for- mation of galaxies. However, “we astronomers do not understand the real relation between the activ- ity of supermassive black holes and star formation in galaxies,” says Tohru Nagao, Professor at Ehime University. “Therefore, many astronomers including us are eager to observe the real scene of the inter- action between the nuclear outflow and the star- forming activities, for revealing the mystery of the co-evolution.” Astronomers believe that DOGs har- bor actively growing supermassive black holes in their nuclei. In particular, one DOG (WISE1029 +0501, hereafter WISE1029) is outflowing gas ionized by the intense radiation from its supermassive black hole. WISE1029 is known as an extreme case concerning ion- ized gas outflow, and this particular factor has motivated the researchers to see what happens to its molecular gas. By making use of ALMA’s outstanding sensitivity which is excellent in investigating properties of molecular gas and star-forming activities in galaxies, the team con- !