Stellar Nurseries Strung Between Colliding Galaxies

A new discovery by astronomers of one of the most powerful eruptions from a black hole ever recorded in the galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414. 

 Located around 3.8 billion light years away, SDSS J1531 contains hundreds of galaxies and huge reservoirs of hot gas and dark matter. At its center, two large galaxies are colliding.

Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Low Frequency Array radio telescope, and Hubble Space Telescope reveal signs of an ancient, immense eruption from the supermassive black hole at the cluster's center.

This eruption created a gigantic cavity that was then filled by energetic particles from the black hole's jets, as seen in radio data from LOFAR. Chandra detected "wings" of X-rays tracing dense gas at the cavity's edges.

Cooling flows from the hot gas formed streams of cold and warm gas detected by ALMA and Gemini. These streams appear to have compressed into 19 large clusters of stars arranged in a curved "beads on a string" pattern. 

The eruption is believed to have been responsible for pushing gas away and creating the conditions for these star clusters to form in this distinctive pattern between the two central galaxies. The findings provide new insights into black hole feedback effects on galaxy formation.