NASA’s James Webb catches a supermassive black hole feeding
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images showing how supermassive black holes consume gas from their host galaxies. These observations provide critical data on how these cosmic engines interact with their surroundings and influence galaxy evolution.
Why it matters
Understanding the growth of supermassive black holes is fundamental to solving long-standing mysteries about how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, are giving astronomers their clearest look yet at how supermassive black holes obtain the gas they need to grow.
The images reveal long strands of gas linking a galaxy's hot outer atmosphere to a rapidly rotating disk surrounding its central black hole. That disk acts as the final reservoir of material before gas falls inward and fuels the black hole.
An international research team led by the Universit de Montr al, with contributions from Michigan State University, carried out the observations and analyzed the results. Their findings, published in the July 14 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters , help address a question that has challenged astronomers for decades.
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