New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have provided detailed views of gas feeding a supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 4696. The data show filaments channeling material into a rotating disk around the black hole. Researchers say the findings support a self-regulating fuel cycle.
An international team led by the Université de Montréal used JWST's NIRSpec instrument to observe NGC 4696 for nearly eight hours. The images resolved an S-shaped structure as a spinning disk nearly 800 light-years across, with gas moving at speeds up to 600 kilometers per second. A filament connects this disk to cooler gas inflows from the galaxy's outer regions.
The observations were published July 14 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. They indicate that jets from the active black hole heat surrounding gas, which later cools into filaments that fall back inward. Simulations by the team matched the JWST data and support the role of magnetic fields in guiding the gas.
Megan Donahue of Michigan State University said the telescope is providing thousands of new measurements. Mark Voit, also at MSU, noted that the images confirm predictions about magnetic channeling of cool gas toward the black hole.
NGC 4696 lies in the Centaurus Cluster about 145 million light-years from Earth and serves as a prime example for studying active galactic nuclei.