James Webb Telescope Unveils Black Hole's Dusty Secret, Solves Decades-Old Mystery

• The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured the clearest image of the dusty disk surrounding a supermassive black hole in the Circinus Galaxy, 13 million light-years away.
• This discovery resolves a mystery from the 1990s, revealing that the extra glow near black holes comes from a disk of dust and gas falling into it, not hot gas streams.
• JWST's infrared capabilities allowed scientists to observe the previously obscured region around the black hole, showing its profound effect on galaxy environments.
• The 'donut-like' ring of gas and dust, or torus, around active black holes generates bright light due to friction as matter falls in, with 87% of the glow from feeding dust.
• A special 'Aperture Masking Interferometer' (AMI) technique effectively doubled James Webb's viewing capability, enabling precise imaging of a 33 light-year wide region.

Why It Matters: James Webb's new image of a black hole's dusty disk solves a long-standing mystery about its glow.