“Strong” AGN Feedback in a Galaxy Merger

This movie illustrates relatively “strong” AGN feedback. The BH here is just as small and weak as the “weak” case before, compared to the size of its galaxy. But we smash two galaxies together, fueling a nuclear starburst and covering the sky (as seen by the AGN) with dense, cold gas. The BH turns on and blows an accretion-disk wind, but instead of simply “venting” out, because there is so much material in all directions, a large mass is swept up in the outflows. Green is warm ionized gas, magenta is cold atomic+molecular gas, red hot (>1e6 K) diffuse gas. Made by Paul Torrey.

© Philip Hopkins 2015