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Circinus Galaxy (Hubble and Webb)

Image shows a large spiral galaxy that that has a bright white center, with several lanes of reddish-brown dust and gas in between faint white arms. The galaxy takes up the center third of the frame. There are several thousand stars, some with diffraction spikes, scattered around the image. This image is labeled Hubble. A small box outlining an area at the center of the galaxy leads a pullout square at the top right. The image, labeled Webb, is dark with a white glowing oval at the center.

This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows a full view of the Circinus galaxy, a nearby spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away. The inset highlights a Webb close-up of the galaxy’s core, where infrared observations pierce through dust to reveal hot material feeding its central supermassive black hole. Webb’s image, made using the Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) tool on its NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument, isolates hot dust in the immediate surroundings of the supermassive black hole, revealing that most of the infrared emission comes from a compact, dusty structure feeding the black hole rather than from outflowing material. In the Webb image, the inner face of the torus glows in infrared light, while the darker areas represent where the outer ring is blocking light.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    14:13:09.91 
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -65 20 20.5
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Circinus
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    About 13 million light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Hubble image is 2.15 arcminutes across (about 8,000 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 4611 (E. Lopez-Rodriguez) and Hubble data from proposals 6359 (M.  Stiavelli), 7273 (A. Wilson), 17731 (A. Filippenko).

     

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    Webb > NIRISS Hubble> WFPC2, WFC3/UVIS Blanco/CTIO> DECam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    Hubble>11 Aug. 1996, 07 Nov. 2009, 26 July 2025 Webb>15 July 2024
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    Webb> F380W, F430W, F480W Hubble> F475W, F606W, F625W, F656N, F814W  DECam> F473W, F642W, F784W (for color fill)
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Circinus Galaxy, ESO 97-G13
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Type II Seyfert galaxy
  • Release Date
    January 13, 2026
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Delivers Unprecedented Look Into Heart of Circinus Galaxy
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez (University of South Carolina), Deepashri Thatte (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Acknowledgment: NSF's NOIRLab, CTIO

Downloads

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  • Full Res (For Display), 3219 × 3620
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  • 3219 × 3620
    jpg (13.86 MB)
  • 1778 × 2000
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  • Hubble Only Full Res (For Display), 3219 × 3620
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  • Hubble Only, 3219 × 3620
    jpg (14.13 MB)
  • Hubble Only, 1778 × 2000
    png (6.59 MB)
Image shows a large spiral galaxy that that has a bright white center, with several lanes of reddish-brown dust and gas in between faint white arms. The galaxy takes up the center third of the frame. There are several thousand stars, some with diffraction spikes, scattered around the image. This image is labeled Hubble. A small box outlining an area at the center of the galaxy leads a pullout square at the top right. The image, labeled Webb, is dark with a white glowing oval at the center.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images were acquired by the NIRISS instrument on the Webb Space Telescope, the WFC3/UVIS and WFPC2 Instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope, and the DECam instrument on the Victor M. Blanco 4m Telescope. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Webb> Blue: F380W, Green: F430W, Red: F480W Hubble> Cyan: F475W, Orange: F625W, Red: F606W + F656N      Chip gaps filled with F656N and F814W      Top portion of Hubble image uses DECam for color (Blue: F475W, Green: F642W, Red: F784W) and F606W for luminosity.

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

An artistu2019s 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 ou2019clock and 7 ou2019clock, 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 Artistu2019s Concept is in the lower right corner.

Circinus Galaxy Center (Artist's Concept)

This artist’s concept depicts the central engine of the Circinus galaxy, visualizing the supermassive black hole fed by a thick, dusty torus that glows in infrared light.

Image titled u201cJames Webb Space Telescope; Circinus Galaxy, ESO 97-G13,u201d with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key. Image shows a large spiral galaxy that that has a bright white center, with several lanes of reddish-brown dust and gas in between faint white arms. This image is labeled Hubble. A small box outlining an area at the center of the galaxy leads a pullout square at the top right. The image, labeled Webb, is dark with a white glowing oval at the center. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 7 ou2019clock. The north arrow points in the 11 ou2019clock direction. At the bottom right of each image is a scale bar. The Hubble one is labeled 1,300 light-years and 400 parsecs and is one eighth the image. The Webb label is 2 pcs and is 1 fifth the inset image. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter.

Circinus Galaxy (Hubble and Webb Compass Image)

This image shows two views of the Circinus galaxy, one captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and the other by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. It shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

Telescope image including stars on the night sky and splotches of pink. Thin blue lines connect the actual stars of several constellations.

Circinus Galaxy Zoom

This zoom-in video shows the location of the Circinus galaxy on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo of the constellation Circinus by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii. The video closes in on the Circinus galaxy, using views from the Digitized Sky Survey and the Dark...

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Details

Last Updated
Jan 12, 2026
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

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