Evidence of interaction between a radio jet emitted from special kind of galaxies called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and the surrounding interstellar medium at small spatial scale of about 10 parsecs has been detected for the first time in a dwarf galaxy situated at a distance of about 14 million light years. This finding challenges the hypothesis that only large and massive galaxies jets from which regulate star formation, host AGN powered by massive black holes. Combining data from radio to X-ray wavebands from the galaxy NGC 4395, researchers from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) observed evidence for such an interaction at the scale of 10 parsecs, or about 30 light years, around the black hole at the centre of this galaxy.

This study was published in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal, titled “Evidence for Low-power Radio Jet–ISM Interaction at 10 pc in the Dwarf AGN Host NGC 4395”, and was authored by Payel Nandi (lead author), C.S. Stalin, and Ram Sagar from IIA, along with other collaborators spread across institutions in Europe and India.