James Webb Telescope Reveals How Supermassive Black Holes Feed on Cosmic Dust

Astronomers have made a significant discovery about supermassive black holes using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The team mapped dust around a nearby black hole and found it tightly packed in a ring feeding the cosmic giant. This finding challenges long-held assumptions about the source of a galaxy's brightest infrared light.

The study focused on the Circinus galaxy, located roughly 13 million light-years away. Using Webb's Aperture Masking Interferometer, researchers separated the black hole's dusty disk from its exhaust. This technique produced sharp images of tiny, previously unseen features.

The observations revealed that about 87 percent of the glowing dust is concentrated in the dense disk fuelling the black hole. Less than 1 percent escapes as exhaust. The dust ring, known as a 'torus,' acts like a fuel line, directing material toward the black hole while controlling how energy spreads into the galaxy.

Black holes are among the universe's most extreme objects, with gravity so strong that not even light can escape. When gas, dust, or stars get too close, they heat up and flare brightly before vanishing. Webb's findings mark the first time a space infrared interferometer has been used to study a target outside the Milky Way. This method could now be applied to other black holes.

The discovery builds on the 2019 milestone when the Event Horizon Telescope captured the first image of a black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy. That image showed glowing debris swirling around the cosmic void.

Webb's new data reshapes our understanding of how black holes interact with their surroundings. The compact dust ring plays a key role in feeding the black hole and regulating its energy output. Future observations using this technique may uncover more secrets about these mysterious cosmic objects.