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

活动星系核（AGN）是宇宙的动力源泉。它们是潜伏在星系中心的超大质量黑洞产生巨大能量的地方，当它们从星际空间将物质吸入它们的深引力井时。其中一些能量以快速流出或物质风的形式被释放出来，这些物质可以从AGN传播到数千光年之外，并带走了从星系中加热和排出气体的能力，从而永远影响其未来的演变。彻底了解这种物质外流的物理性质，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）是这十年来天文学上最伟大、最令人期待的进步。通过高度竞争的选择过程，我们获得了对AGN附近11个知名且研究充分的观测结果，这些观测结果包括电磁波谱中红外波段的图像库，以及6个目标子集的一组跨越相同波长的三维光谱立方体。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，比如它们的双锥形状与中心黑洞的气体盘成直角。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量含量。我们的工作是一个大型国际研究项目的一部分，该项目被称为星系活动、环面和流出量调查（GATOS）。多年来，GATOS已经获得了我们项目中所有AGN的一些惊人数据，包括来自哈勃太空望远镜的图像，以及来自阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列（ALMA）的分子气体图。利用这些，我们将探索这些AGN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组成部分之间传递的方式，因为它从核心升起并消散到更广泛的星系中。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.