Zooming in on a Galactic Fountain

This zoom video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up of the Abell 2597 cluster. Observations by ALMA and data from the MUSE spectrograph on ESO’s VLT have revealed a colossal fountain of molecular gas powered by a black hole in the brightest galaxy of the Abell 2597 cluster — the galactic cycle powering this vast cosmic fountain has never before been observed so clearly.

The final shot is a composite image of the Abell 2597 galaxy cluster showing the fountain-like flow of gas powered by the supermassive black hole in the central galaxy. The yellow is ALMA data showing cold gas. The red is data from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope showing the hot hydrogen gas in the same region. The extend purple is the extended hot, ionized gas as imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.