Starburst winds may scorch early massive galaxies to death
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA observed CRISTAL-02, a massive galaxy in the early universe, shedding gas via a gigantic cold-gas plume driven by a wind. The wind, fueled by intense star formation likely triggered by a galactic collision, ejects gas faster than the galaxy can convert it into stars, potentially starving it of fuel in under 100 million years and producing a dead, star-formation-silent galaxy. This suggests that galactic winds from star formation—not just supermassive black holes—can kill large galaxies early on.