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

    January 13, 2026Release ID: 2026-105 Missions: Webb

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

    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.

  2. Hubble Reveals Surprising Spiral Shape of Galaxy Hosting Young Jet

    January 13, 2025Release ID: 2025-004 Missions: Hubble

    Astronomers are now rethinking the underlying trigger of quasar jets.

    Field of yellow galaxies of various sizes and distances on a black background. Two larger galaxies are prominent. Centered is a galaxy with a bright core and faint spiral arms coming off its top and bottom. To the lower right of the spiral is a ring galaxy with an apparent gap between its bright core and the ring oval of dust and gas surrounding it.

  3. NASA's Hubble Takes the Closest-Ever Look at a Quasar

    December 05, 2024Release ID: 2024-024 Missions: Hubble, STScI

    Legendary Active Galaxy Contains a Monster Black Hole

    A two-panel annotated image of quasar 3C 273, taken by different Hubble science instruments. The top panel is a Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) image of quasar 3C 273. It looks like a bright white car headlight. There is a linear orange-white smoke-like feature stretching to the 4 o’clock position, an extragalactic jet launched from the quasar in the center of the black hole of an unseen galaxy. The bottom panel is a Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) coronagraph image of quasar 3C 273. It looks roughly the same as the WFPC2 image, but in blue shades. A black circle (labeled "core light blocked") blocks the glare of the quasar. Blue-colored filamentary material can be seen near the black hole. The extragalactic jet is still visible.

  4. NASA's Hubble, Chandra Find Supermassive Black Hole Duo

    September 09, 2024Release ID: 2024-022 Missions: Hubble

    Cores of Two Galaxies Are on a Collision Course

    Artist's depiction of a pair of active black holes at the heart of two merging galaxies. One distant black hole is at upper left, and a foreground black hole is at lower right. The black holes are both surrounded by a yellow-orange accretion disk of hot gas. Some of the material is ejected along the spin axis of each black hole and resembles two pencil-thin blue jets, like a spindle through a record. The disk at lower right fills the corner of the image and is tilted to the left, with the jet pointing in the 11 o'clock direction. The disk at upper left is much smaller and tilted to the right, with the jet aimed at the 1 o'clock position. The background is filled with thousands of white stars and red clouds of gas and dust.

  5. Webb Detects Most Distant Active Supermassive Black Hole to Date

    July 06, 2023Release ID: 2023-114 Missions: Webb

    With Webb, a slew of other distant black holes and early galaxies also popped into view for the first time.

    Thousands of galaxies appear in this view, which is set against the black background of space. There are many overlapping objects at various distances. They include large, blue foreground stars, some with all eight diffraction spikes, and white and pink spiral and elliptical galaxies. Numerous tiny red dots appear throughout the scene. This is a portion of a vast survey known shorthand as CEERS.

  6. NASA's Webb Proves Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe

    June 12, 2023Release ID: 2023-122 Missions: Webb

    Early galaxies’ stars allowed light to travel freely by heating and ionizing intergalactic gas, clearing vast regions around them.

    Thousands of tiny galaxies appear across the black expanse of space. The galaxy colors vary. Some of the smallest galaxies are shades of orange and pink. Most galaxies are so distant they appear as single points of light. At the center is a pink object with six diffraction spikes. This is quasar J0100+2802. It appears slightly smaller than the foreground stars, which appear blue.

  7. Hubble Unexpectedly Finds Double Quasar in Distant Universe

    April 05, 2023Release ID: 2023-002 Missions: Hubble

    A Pair of Merging Galaxies Ignite Black Holes on a Collision Course

    Artist's concept showing a chaotic, nebulous, tangled blur of blue, brown, red, white and gold against a black, deep-space field peppered with stars and galaxies.

  8. NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Networks of Gas and Dust in Nearby Galaxies

    February 16, 2023Release ID: 2023-104 Missions: Webb

    Young stars’ impact on galaxy evolution explored with PHANGS program

    A large galaxy takes up the entirety of the image. The image is mostly black with a bright, glowing oval core at the center. The core is mostly bright white, but there are also swirling, detailed structures that resemble water circling a drain. There is white and light blue colored dust that emanates from the core’s center, but it is tightly contained to the core. There is black space between the core and glowing dust of the outer oval rings. The rings are wispy and highlight filaments of dust around cavernous black bubbles. The dust in the outer rings contains dots that are navy blue, pinkish, reddish, and white. Throughout, there is also a smattering of background galaxies seen as small red and greenish dots.

  9. NASA’s Webb Uncovers Dense Cosmic Knot in the Early Universe

    October 20, 2022Release ID: 2022-058 Missions: Webb

    Webb continues its search into the earliest times of our universe, revealing the surprising formation of a massive galaxy cluster around a powerful, red quasar.

    Infographic titled “Motions of Gas Around an Extremely Red Quasar; Hubble ACS and WFC3 Imaging and Webb NIRSpec IFU Spectroscopy

  10. Hubble Detects Protective Shield Defending a Pair of Dwarf Galaxies

    September 28, 2022Release ID: 2022-030 Missions: Hubble

    Scientists confirm the existence of the elusive Magellanic Corona, a protective halo of hot, ionized gas previously known only in theory.

    Illustration showing the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Large Magellanic Cloud, with three bright background quasars.

  11. Hubble Sheds Light on Origins of Supermassive Black Holes

    April 13, 2022Release ID: 2022-019 Missions: Hubble

    Bizarre, Evolutionary Missing Link Uncovered in Hubble Deep Survey of Galaxies

    Deep field with a myriad of colorful galaxies and a close-up of a spiral galaxy.

  12. Scouting Ancient Supermassive Black Holes with NASA’s Webb

    December 08, 2021Release ID: 2021-056 Missions: Webb

    Researchers will examine three active supermassive black holes – known as quasars – their host galaxies, and their neighborhoods to better detail these distant objects and the conditions of the early universe

    Illustration showing a swirling disk of orange brown with white cone of light projecting out perpendicular to the disk from a black sphere at the center.

  13. NASA’s Webb Will Use Quasars to Unlock the Secrets of the Early Universe

    June 23, 2021Release ID: 2021-026 Missions: Webb

    Looking back in time, Webb will see quasars as they appeared billions of years ago 

    Artist’s concept of an active galaxy with a brilliant quasar against the black background of space.

  14. Hubble Spots Double Quasars in Merging Galaxies

    April 06, 2021Release ID: 2021-014 Missions: Hubble

    Seeing Dual Quasars Is Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack

    Artist's illustration of the brilliant light of two quasars in the cores of two galaxies that are merging.

  15. Peering into a Galaxy's Dusty Core to Study an Active Supermassive Black Hole

    March 17, 2021Release ID: 2021-015 Missions: Webb

    Researchers using NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will map and model the core of nearby galaxy Centaurus A.

    A multi-wavelength image of galaxy Centaurus A fills the field of view and is centered. The background of space is black and speckled with stars and distant galaxies of all colors.

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