NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered its sharpest look yet at the Circinus galaxy, revealing how material flows toward its central supermassive black hole.
Circinus, a spiral galaxy located roughly 13 million light-years from Earth, contains an active supermassive black hole at its center. For decades, astronomers have struggled to observe this region directly because of intense radiation, dense dust, and overwhelming starlight that obscured the galaxy’s core. Webb’s advanced infrared capabilities have now pierced that veil.
A clearer picture of a hidden engine
Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph equipped with an Aperture Masking Interferometer, researchers were able to isolate the black hole’s immediate surroundings with extraordinary precision. The technique effectively allowed the telescope to function as a much larger observatory, sharply increasing resolution in a small region of space.
This approach enabled scientists to separate infrared emissions from different structures around the black hole, something that was not possible with earlier telescopes. The results challenge long-standing assumptions about where energy in active galaxies originates.
