Dust in the Wind: insights into the supermassive black hole - galaxy connection with the James Webb Space Telescope

活动星系核（AGN）是宇宙的发电站。它们是潜伏在星系中心的超大质量黑洞的所在地，当它们将星际空间的物质吸入它们深深的引力威尔斯时，会产生巨大的能量。其中一些能量以物质的快速外流或风的形式释放出来，这些物质可以远离AGN数千光年，并具有加热和从星系中排出气体的能力，永远影响其未来的演化。对这种外流的物理学的透彻理解是我们对宇宙中星系和物质命运的现代图景的重要组成部分。詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜（JWST）是本十年天文学中最伟大和最令人期待的进步。通过一个高度竞争的选择过程，我们已经获得了前所未有的观测11个著名的和良好的研究附近的活动星系核，其中包括一个画廊的图像在中红外波段的电磁波谱，并为一个子集的6个目标，一组三维光谱立方体跨越相同的波长。有了这个特殊的数据集，我们的研究将检查由AGN加热和加速的尘埃气体风进入其宿主星系的证据。我们将能够识别尘埃风的结构特征，例如它们的双锥形状与为中心黑洞提供能量的气体盘成直角。我们将能够确定风的成分和尘埃特性，并测量它们的质量和热含量。我们的工作是一个名为银河系活动、环面和外流调查（GATOS）的大型国际研究企业的一部分。多年来，GATOS已经获得了我们计划中所有AGN的一些壮观数据，包括哈勃太空望远镜的图像和阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列（阿尔马）的分子气体图。利用这些，我们将探索这些活动星系核如何影响其星系中心的气体环境。我们将确定能量在星际气体的不同成分之间转移的方式，因为它从核中升起并消散到更广阔的星系中。这有可能彻底改变我们对连接气体、星系和超大质量黑洞的反馈回路的理解。

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are the powerhouses of the Cosmos. They are the sites where supermassive black holes, lurking in the hearts of galaxies, generate enormous amounts of energy as they draw material from interstellar space into their deep gravitational wells. Some of this energy is liberated in the form of fast outflows or winds of matter that can travel thousands of light years away from the AGN, taking with them the capacity to heat up and expel gas from the galaxy at large, forever affecting its future evolution. A thorough understanding of the physics of such outflows is an important part of our modern picture of the fate of galaxies and matter in the Universe.The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the greatest and most-awaited advance of this decade in astronomy. Through a highly competitive selection process, we have obtained unprecedented observations of 11 well-known and well-studied nearby AGN, which consist of a gallery of images across the mid-infared bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, and, for a subset of 6 targets, a set of three-dimensional spectroscopic cubes spanning the same wavelengths. With this exceptional dataset, our study will examine the evidence for winds of dusty gas heated and accelerated by AGN out into their host galaxies. We will be able to identify the tell-tale structural signatures of dusty winds, such their biconical form seen at right angles to the discs of gas that feed the central black holes. We will be able to determine the composition and dust properties of the winds, and measure their masses and heat content.Our work is part of a major international research enterprise called the Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS). Over the years, GATOS has obtained some spectacular data for all the AGN in our programme, including images from the Hubble Space Telescope, and maps of molecular gas from the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). Using these, we will explore how these AGN influence the gaseous environment of their galaxy centres. We will determine the ways that energy is transferred between different components of the interstellar gas as it rises out of the nucleus and dissipates into the wider galaxy. This has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the feedback loop that connects gas, galaxies, and supermassive black holes.