"NASA Unearths Rare Galactic 'Fossil' 13 Million Light-Years Away"

NASA scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered X-ray activity in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4945, shedding light on galactic evolution. The activity, believed to be a relic of a particle jet erupting from the galaxy's central supermassive black hole 5 million years ago, has pushed cold gas through the galaxy, possibly triggering a starburst event. The findings provide insight into the influence of black holes compared to star formation in galaxy evolution, and the observations were made using ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, which has helped uncover a galactic "fossil" that may be the first of many.