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Dr Helen Russell is an astronomer at our School of Physics and Astronomy at the 糖心原创, exploring how supermassive black holes shape the galaxies around them. Supported by a Leverhulme Award and working with NASA, she's using cutting-edge X-ray observations to investigate how powerful outbursts from black holes influence galaxy evolution across the Universe.
Dr Helen Russell is an Assistant Professor at our School of Physics and Astronomy with an outstanding career working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She is the only UK-based astronomer awarded observing time in the first science programme call of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission(XRISM). In this Take 10, Dr Russell shares her inspirations and career journey with us through ten questions.
I study supermassive black holes and how they shape the galaxies in the universe around us. Supermassive black holes weigh over a million times the mass of our sun and are thought to lie at the heart of every galaxy, including our Milky Way. Their immense gravitational pull bends light, shreds stars and strips gas from the surroundings. The debris is drawn into a swirling disk around the black hole and, before it crosses the event horizon, can be launched back out in jets travelling near light speed. I study the impact of these jets on the surrounding galaxy.
When I was at secondary school, my physics teacher brought an old TV to class. He unplugged it, took the back off, handed us some tools and told us to take it apart and determine how it worked.
Suddenly, the physics I studied in textbooks leapt off the page and explained how all the technology around me worked.
Astronomy was the most challenging extension of this! We can't take it to pieces in a lab, we can only use light that travels to us across the cosmos.
High-energy astrophysics is entering a new era. Developed by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency at a cost of US$300M, the newly-launched XRISM satellite carries the most advanced X-ray spectrometer ever flown.
I am the only UK-based astronomer awarded observing time in XRISM's first call for science programmes. With this new data, I will map galaxy-scale gas flows to determine whether and how black hole jets heat and drive gas out of galaxies.
My research aims to understand the most extreme environments in the universe and answer key questions in astrophysics surrounding the growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes. The fundamental plasma processes that I study are prevalent in the solar wind - the stream of charged particles coming from our sun - and can impact spacecraft operation as well as the safety of humans in space.
I have just been awarded almost £1 million by the Leverhulme Trust for my research project - 'the physics underpinning feedback from supermassive black holes.
I have more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publications, including four in the most influential journal Nature and four that present the first science results on black hole activity in massive galaxies from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array(ALMA) observatory and the Hitomi satellite.
My publications have featured in numerous press releases from NASA and major observatories. Some of these notable publications include and .
I hold leading roles on the science teams of future international observatories.
I lead the development of the science programmes and core objectives, which drive advances in spacecraft, mirror and detector technology.
Image description: Feedback in the massive galaxy M84. The supermassive black hole at the centre has launched high speed jets of particles that emit radio light(blue). The jets are disrupted in the dense environment and inflate large bubbles that displace the galaxy shot X-ray-emitting gas (pink).
Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Princeton Univ/C. Bambic et al.; Optical: SDSS; Radio:NSF/NRAO/VLA/ESO; Image processing:NASA/CXC/SAO/N.Wolk
Modern astronomy seeks to understand how galaxies seen in the local universe, including our own Milky Way, formed in the thirteen billion years since the Big Bang. Gravity dominates this process by pulling gas clouds together and forming stars in their densest regions. But, if our models only include gravity, we predict runaway growth and oversized galaxies far larger than those in the universe around us. Additional physics is needed.
Jetted outbursts from supermassive black holes, known as feedback, are powerful enough to limit the growth of entire galaxies. But this mechanism will only work if these outbursts are efficiently harnessed into heating and driving gas out of the galaxy.
The big question: is black hole feedback the crucial mechanism that opposes gravity and limits the growth of massive galaxies in the universe?
Beyond XRISM, the European Space Agency (ESA) is now working on the NewAthena X-ray telescope that will be the largest X-ray observatory ever built. NewAthena is the second Large mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision Programme with a budget of €1.3 billion and a launch date of 2037.
NewAthena will reveal the growth of black holes in the early universe and map black hole feedback across all galaxies to the peak of galaxy formation about 10 billion years ago.
I found the transitions to and from maternity leave particularly challenging. Fortunately, the 糖心原创 has been a very understanding and supportive employer. I worked part-time for a few years when my children were young. Then I gradually returned to full-time and rebuilt my research programme - first with transformative early data from the new XRISM satellite and now with a Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award.
Persevere - research is a marathon not a sprint.
Day-by-day you need to keep advancing each idea, double-checking every step and reminding yourself of the incredible goal at the end of all this hard work.