Multiphase images of a powerful supernova-driven wind in the early Universe

Abstract

Galactic winds are considered a likely driver of rapid quenching in early massive galaxies, but until now there has been no direct evidence that such systems drive winds powerful enough to meaningfully suppress their star-formation. We present resolved cold gas and ionized gas observations of a powerful supernova-driven wind in a massive galaxy 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang (at $z$=5.3). The outflow, likely triggered by ongoing merger activity, is removing gas at twice the rate of star-formation and could plausibly eject all the cold gas from the galaxy within 100 Myr. Our results suggest that powerful merger-driven outflows may be a key mechanism to produce abundant massive quiescent galaxies in the early Universe when a large fraction of massive galaxies are interacting. The mass and energetics of this distant outflow are consistent with nearby starburst-driven superwinds, suggesting that the efficiency of stellar feedback has remained relatively constant over the last 12 billion years of cosmic history.