New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope are giving astronomers a clearer view of how supermassive black holes gather the gas they need to grow, according to ScienceDaily.
The research focused on NGC 4696, the largest central galaxy in the Centaurus Cluster, about 145 million light-years from Earth. Using JWST’s NIRSpec instrument for nearly eight hours, the team mapped the motion and makeup of gas near the galaxy’s center.
Those images showed long filaments of gas connecting the galaxy’s hot outer atmosphere to a rotating disk around its central black hole. The disk stretches nearly 800 light-years across, and some of the gas inside it is moving at speeds of up to 600 kilometers per second.
The study, led by the Université de Montréal with contributions from Michigan State University, was published in the July 14 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Researchers say the findings offer some of the strongest evidence yet that cool gas filaments can feed supermassive black holes.
The team also used computer simulations that closely matched what JWST observed, supporting the idea that cooling gas, magnetic fields and black hole jets work together in a self-regulating cycle.
