magnetic instabilities in the jet tagged posts

New simulations of the jets produced by rotating supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies show how, with enough power, they can force their way through surrounding gas and drill out of the galaxy, channeling hot gas into the interstellar medium (top). Less powerful jets get stalled inside the galaxy, however, dumping their hot gas inside and generally heating up the galaxy. These stalled jets may be part of the black hole feedback mechanism that periodically halts the inflow of gas that feeds the black hole. Simulations by Alexander Tchekhovskoy, a NASA Einstein postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, and Omer Bromberg, a former Lyman Spitzer Jr. postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University who is now at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.