NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured images showing a supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 4696 actively feeding, with a massive filament of gas funneling material into a spinning disk around the black hole.
The observations offer researchers a detailed look at the process by which supermassive black holes draw in surrounding material, providing new data on the structure and behavior of accretion disks at the centers of galaxies. NGC 4696 is a well-studied galaxy that has previously been the focus of astronomical research into black hole activity.
The imagery adds to the growing body of work enabled by JWST’s advanced infrared capabilities, which have allowed astronomers to observe cosmic phenomena in greater detail than previous telescopes.
NGC 4696 sits at the center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster and has been studied previously in X-ray and radio wavelengths, with the new infrared imagery from JWST adding a fresh layer of detail to existing observations.
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Sources:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top/technology/