Supermassive black hole. Computer illustration of a supermassive black hole based on new data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency's (ESA's) XMM-Newton telescopes. Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds (whiteish rays) outward. The new data show that these winds, which contain gases of highly ionized atoms, blow in a nearly spherical fashion, emanating in every direction, as shown here. The findings rule out the possibility that the winds blow in narrow beams. The high-speed winds are also powerful enough to shut down star formation throughout a galaxy.