active galactic nucleus

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$This image of Messier 77 from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disk and its piercingly bright core like never before. The bright orange lines appearing to radiate out from the galaxy’s center are not actually a feature of the galaxy: they are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved AGN is bent (diffracted) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Leroy.$

May 12, 2026

New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope capture the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77 as a…

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April 4, 2026

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have revealed unexpectedly overmassive black holes at the hearts of a pair…

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Largest observed flare from a black hole unleashes the light of 10 trillion suns

November 10, 2025

Astronomers have spotted the largest and most distant flare ever observed from a supermassive black hole. Nicknamed “Superman,”…

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