Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The mass of gas being ejected from the galaxy is more than what’s needed to keep forming new stars. Essentially, the black hole is causing the galaxy to run out of gas and stop star formation, leading to its “starvation” and eventual death.