WASHINGTON — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the sharpest view yet into the heart of the Circinus Galaxy, overturning long-standing theories about how matter behaves near a supermassive black hole, researchers reported Tuesday.
Circinus, located about 13 million light-years from Earth, contains an active supermassive black hole surrounded by thick clouds of gas and dust. For decades, astronomers believed that most of the infrared light near the galaxy’s core came from powerful outflows — streams of superheated material blasting away from the black hole. New Webb observations show the opposite: most of the hot, dusty material is actually falling inward and feeding the black hole.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, are based on the most detailed infrared image ever taken of a black hole’s immediate surroundings.
Using Webb’s advanced imaging capabilities, scientists determined that about 87% of the infrared emission from hot dust comes from regions closest to the black hole, while less than 1% originates from dusty outflows. The remaining 12% comes from material farther out that had previously been indistinguishable.
“This is the first time we can truly separate what’s feeding the black hole from what’s being pushed away,” said lead author Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez of the University of South Carolina.
A long-standing mystery
Supermassive black holes grow by pulling in nearby gas and dust. That material forms a dense, donut-shaped structure called a torus, which feeds an inner accretion disk spinning around the black hole. As friction heats the disk, it glows brightly in infrared light.
Until now, astronomers could not resolve that region clearly. Ground-based telescopes struggled with interference from bright stars and dense dust. As a result, earlier models often attributed excess infrared radiation to outflows rather than inflowing material.
“Since the 1990s, we couldn’t explain the excess infrared emissions from hot dust in active galaxies,” Lopez-Rodriguez said. “The models only worked if you chose either the torus or the outflows, but not both.”
Webb’s sensitivity and resolution finally allowed scientists to test those assumptions directly.
Webb’s interferometer technique
To peer into Circinus’ core, the team used Webb’s Aperture Masking Interferometer on the NIRISS instrument. The tool turns Webb into a miniature telescope array by channeling light through seven tiny openings that create interference patterns. Those patterns are reconstructed into images with much higher resolution than normal observations.
“Instead of Webb’s 6.5-meter diameter, it’s like observing with a 13-meter space telescope,” said co-author Joel Sanchez-Bermudez of the National University of Mexico.
The technique produced the first space-based infrared interferometric image of an object outside the Milky Way, allowing scientists to isolate emissions from the torus, accretion disk, and outflows for the first time.
“It’s the first time a high-contrast mode of Webb has been used on an extragalactic source,” said Space Telescope Science Institute researcher Julien Girard.
Changing how black holes are studied
The discovery reshapes how astronomers understand black hole growth. In Circinus, the black hole’s moderate brightness means its torus dominates the emissions. Brighter black holes, researchers say, may still show stronger outflows.
“The intrinsic brightness matters,” Lopez-Rodriguez said. “For Circinus, it makes sense that the torus dominates. For more powerful black holes, outflows could take over.”
Scientists now plan to apply the same technique to dozens of nearby galaxies to determine whether Circinus is typical or unusual.
“We need a statistical sample — maybe 10 to 20 black holes — to understand how feeding and outflows relate to a black hole’s power,” Lopez-Rodriguez said.
Webb’s expanding role
The James Webb Space Telescope, led by NASA with the European and Canadian space agencies, continues to push the boundaries of space observation. Beyond studying exoplanets and early galaxies, Webb is now giving astronomers an unprecedented look at how supermassive black holes grow and influence their host galaxies.
With this breakthrough, researchers say Webb has opened a new window into the mechanics of some of the most extreme objects in the universe.
