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NASA’s Webb Delivers Unprecedented Look Into Heart of Circinus Galaxy

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January 13, 2026 5:00AM (EST)Release ID: 2026-105
An artist’s illustration showing the center of the Circinus galaxy, including its supermassive black hole, dusty torus, and superheated jets of matter. The center of supermassive black hole, slightly left of center, is bright white. Two slim, bright green jets of matter shoot out from the black hole at 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock, and hit the edges of the frame. A donut-shaped, orangish-pinkish ring of dust and gas, called a torus, surrounds the black hole. The disk is clumpy closer to the center and more diffuse at the edges. The torus, tilted at the same angle as the jets, is brighter and whiter closer to the black hole than at the edges. The words Artist’s Concept is in the lower right corner.

Summary

A specialized technique may change what scientists thought about how much material black holes eject.

Supermassive black holes are known to both consume and eject matter during their most active periods. Based on previous observations, astronomers theorized that Circinus’ active black hole ejected a much larger amount of matter in the form of outflows than they took in. However, a highly specialized observation mode on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has begun to change what some astronomers think about the amount of matter lost to outflows from some black holes.

Full Article

The Circinus Galaxy, a galaxy about 13 million light-years away, contains an active supermassive black hole that continues to influence its evolution. The largest source of infrared light from the region closest to the black hole itself was thought to be outflows, or streams of superheated matter that fire outward.  Now, new observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, seen here with a new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, provide evidence that reverses this thinking, suggesting that most of the hot, dusty material is actually feeding the central black hole. The ...

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News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.

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