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Science Highlight: NASA’s Webb Delivers Unprecedented Look into Heart of Circinus Galaxy

14 January 2026

A team led by Dr. Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez from University of South Carolina, a former member of the Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group (COPAG) Executive Committee, has used NASA’s Webb telescope to apply the Aperture-Mask Interferometry technique to get high contrast, high resolution images of the outflow and accretion components in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the center of Circinus galaxy. The largest source of infrared light from the region closest to the black hole itself was thought to be outflows, or streams of superheated matter that fire outward. The new observations provide evidence that reverses this thinking, suggesting that most of the hot, dusty material is feeding the central black hole.

Read more at the link here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-delivers-unprecedented-look-into-heart-of-circinus-galaxy/

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Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner is a cone-shaped orange-red cloud known as Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. Along the cone there are additional rounded edges, like edges of a wave, and intricate foamy-like details, as well as a clearer view of the black background of space. In the upper left, overlapping with the rounded end of Herbig-Haro 49/50, is a background spiral galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outward to blend with red spiral arms. The background of space is speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies throughout.