Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That's equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.

"The [energy released from gas falling into the] the supermassive black hole is removing large amounts of gas very fast from the galaxy," D'Eugenio explained. "Without this gas, no new stars can be formed, so this galaxy is losing the `shine' of young and bright stars, and has already started it's long history of fading."

Strange Universe Like a parasite sucking the life force out of its host, an international group of scientists have determined that a supermassive black hole is starving a galaxy of essential materials to make new stars.

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Two billion years old is far too young for a galaxy to die, barely a child by cosmological standards. Small galaxies may end their lives at that age after being eaten by larger ones, but a big galaxy with only a few billion years on the clock should be able to look forward to a productive life.

An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light- years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Credit: E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei

A distant galaxy has no more stars being born due to a supermassive black hole that's stripping away all the gas needed to forge them.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed that supermassive black holes can prevent star formation in their host galaxies by expelling vital gas and dust. An international team led by Cambridge University discovered this phenomenon in a distant galaxy,

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered direct evidence showing that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies, depriving them of star-forming material.