Cooling flows as a research area focuses on the radiative cooling and subsequent inflow of hot, X-ray–emitting intracluster or intragroup medium gas toward the centers of galaxy clusters or massive galaxies. It investigates the thermodynamic balance between cooling, gravitational infall, and heating processes such as active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, thermal conduction, and turbulence. This field combines observational X-ray, optical, and radio data with hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations to quantify mass deposition rates, entropy profiles, multiphase gas formation, and star-formation fueling, aiming to resolve the “cooling flow problem” and establish self-regulated feedback models in large-scale structures.
How supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of galaxies accrete material, how they feed back into the surrounding region, and how they regulate these processes to influence the evolution of their galaxies are all ...
Astronomy
Jun 11, 2026
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Clues about how galaxies like our Milky Way form and evolve and why their stars show surprising chemical patterns have been revealed by a new study.
Astronomy
Dec 8, 2025
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106
As climate change and growing energy demands strain global systems, scientists are increasingly turning to passive cooling technologies—ways to cool objects or spaces without using electricity. One promising method is radiative ...
Optics & Photonics
May 16, 2025
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130
The core of a massive cluster of galaxies appears to be pumping out far more stars than it should. Now researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a key ingredient within the cluster that explains the core's prolific ...
Astronomy
Feb 13, 2025
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65
Kokoro Hosogi, a physics student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has achieved a rare honor for an undergraduate: her contributions are being recognized in a study published in the journal Nature. The researcher ...
Astronomy
Feb 12, 2025
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