New Study Reveals Short Lifespans of Compact Symmetric Objects

Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) are not young galaxies but have relatively short lifespans, living and dying out in thousands of years.
CSOs are powered by tidal disruption events (TDEs), where a massive star is devoured by a supermassive black hole, leading to the emission of ultrafast jets.
These jets are very energetic but last for only about 5,000 years before shutting off.
CSOs provide a new avenue for studying the interactions between massive stars and supermassive black holes on shorter timescales.
Only one out of every 100 CSO jets is predicted to become long-lived, similar to the jets found in galaxies like Cygnus A.