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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Galaxy-killing Wind Discovered In The Early Universe

Astronomers have discovered a powerful phenomenon in the early universe that may finally explain one of the biggest mysteries in modern space science: why so many massive galaxies appear to die so quickly after forming. This newly identified force, called a “galaxy-killing wind,” can blow away the fuel needed for star formation and leave entire galaxies “dead” far earlier than expected.

The discovery comes from observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Together, these powerful tools are helping scientists look deep into the past, to a time when the universe was only about 1 billion years old.

A Mystery From the Early Universe

For years, astronomers have been puzzled by something strange. In the early universe, they are seeing a surprisingly large number of massive galaxies that are already “dead.” A dead galaxy is one that no longer forms new stars. Since stars are the building blocks of galaxies, this is a major evolutionary stage.

According to older theories, galaxies should take much longer to grow, use up their gas, and then stop forming stars. But JWST observations since 2022 have shown that many galaxies formed, evolved, and died much faster than expected.

This raised a big question: what is shutting them down so quickly?

Some scientists suggested exotic explanations, including the possibility that dark energy behaved differently in the early universe. But a new study now offers a simpler and more natural answer.

The New Explanation: A Powerful Cosmic Wind

The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (June 10, 2026), suggests that intense “galaxy-killing winds” are responsible for shutting down star formation in many early galaxies.

These winds are not ordinary. They are extremely powerful streams of gas that can push material out of a galaxy at high speed. Once this gas is gone, the galaxy loses the raw material needed to create new stars.

Without fresh gas, star formation stops—and the galaxy slowly becomes inactive.

How Do These Winds Form?

The research team explains that these destructive winds are triggered by violent events inside young galaxies.

In the early universe, galaxies were much closer together than they are today. Because of this, collisions between galaxies were common. When galaxies collide, they do not simply pass through each other. Instead, they interact strongly, compressing gas and triggering massive bursts of star formation.

This process turns galaxies into extremely active “star factories.”

However, this intense activity has a dangerous side effect.

As new massive stars form, they live fast and die young. Many of them explode as supernovas within a few million years. These explosions release enormous amounts of energy, which push surrounding gas outward.

When enough supernovas occur together, they create a combined force strong enough to drive gas completely out of the galaxy. This is what scientists now call a galaxy-killing wind.

As lead researcher Dr. Rebecca Davies explained, dense regions of the universe behave like “very active cities,” where constant collisions and explosions reshape entire galaxies.

A Real Example: Galaxy CRISTAL-02

To study this phenomenon, researchers observed a galaxy called CRISTAL-02 using JWST and ALMA. This galaxy existed just 1 billion years after the Big Bang.

CRISTAL-02 is not a calm system. It is actually multiple galaxies in the final stages of a cosmic collision. This collision is causing an extreme burst of star formation—about twice as fast as similar galaxies.

But the most surprising discovery was something much more dramatic.

Scientists detected a massive plume of cold gas stretching far outside the galaxy. This plume is almost as large as the galaxy itself.

This is a strong sign that gas is not staying inside the galaxy—it is being blown out into space.

Even more striking, the data shows that this gas is being ejected at a speed twice as fast as the rate at which new stars are forming.

A Galaxy on the Edge of Death

This imbalance is critical. If a galaxy loses gas faster than it forms stars, it cannot survive in its active form for long.

According to the research team, if CRISTAL-02 continues at this rate, it could stop forming stars completely in less than 50 million years. In cosmic terms, this is extremely fast.

Once the gas is gone, the galaxy will become “dead,” meaning it will no longer produce new stars and will slowly fade over time.

This provides a direct explanation for why so many massive dead galaxies are already being seen in the early universe.

Why This Changes Everything

For a long time, galaxy winds were only theoretical. Scientists believed they should exist, but they lacked strong observational proof in the early universe.

Now, JWST and ALMA have provided some of the clearest evidence yet that these winds are real and powerful enough to reshape galaxies.

This discovery is important because it shows that galaxy evolution may be driven not only by slow processes over billions of years, but also by sudden, violent events.

Instead of galaxies gradually fading away, many of them may “live fast and die young.”

A Widespread Cosmic Process

The study also suggests that CRISTAL-02 is not unique.

Observations show that nearly half of massive early galaxies are interacting or colliding with nearby galaxies. This means that galaxy mergers and collisions were extremely common in the early universe.

If most of these collisions trigger similar starbursts and winds, then galaxy-killing winds may be a normal part of galaxy evolution—not a rare exception.

This could naturally explain why so many massive galaxies in the early universe appear to shut down so quickly.

A Simpler Answer to a Big Mystery

Before this study, some theories tried to explain early galaxy death using complex ideas, including changes in fundamental cosmic forces like dark energy.

But this new research suggests something more grounded: ordinary physics on a massive scale.

Stars form, stars explode, gas gets pushed out, and galaxies run out of fuel. Over time, this leads to their death.

No exotic physics required—just extreme conditions in the early universe.

What This Means for the Future of Astronomy

This discovery opens a new window into understanding how galaxies grow and evolve. It also shows the importance of combining powerful telescopes like JWST and ALMA to study the early universe in detail.

As more data comes in, scientists hope to find more examples of galaxy-killing winds and better understand how common they are.

If confirmed, this could reshape our understanding of how the universe built its first massive galaxies—and why so many of them did not survive for long.

Conclusion

The discovery of galaxy-killing winds provides a powerful and simple explanation for a long-standing cosmic mystery. In the early universe, galaxies did not just grow—they also destroyed themselves through intense star formation and violent winds driven by exploding stars.

Galaxies like CRISTAL-02 show us that the universe was once a far more chaotic place, where creation and destruction went hand in hand.

In the end, the same process that helped galaxies grow may also have been the reason many of them died young.

Reference: Rebecca L Davies, D B Fisher, R Herrera-Camus, A Faisst, J Spilker, J González-López, S Fujimoto, R Amorín, M Aravena, R J Assef, L Barcos-Muñoz, M Boquien, M Dessauges-Zavadsky, A Ferrara, N M Förster Schreiber, M Ginolfi, D Gómez-Espinoza, E Ibar, R Ikeda, H Inami, G C Jones, A Koekemoer, L L Lee, J Li, D Liu, Z Liu, I De Looze, I Mitsuhashi, J Molina, A Nanni, M Relano, M Romano, P Sawant, M Solimano, L Sommovigo, K Tadaki, K Telikova, H Übler, V Villanueva, W Wang, G Zamorani, Multiphase images of a powerful supernova-driven wind in the early Universe, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 549, Issue 3, July 2026, stag874, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag874

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