Astronomers are closer to solving the mystery of how supermassive black holes feed themselves thanks to new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST.
MSU helped an international team, led by the Université de Montréal, perform the observations and interpret the data, finding answers to a question that has stumped scientists for decades.
The study helps astronomers paint a better picture of the full feeding cycle of a supermassive black hole, or SMBH. The images provide the clearest view ever seen of gaseous filaments connecting a galaxy’s hot atmosphere to the rotating disk of gas that feeds its central supermassive black hole.
“It’s been really exciting to participate in this project,” MSU Physics and Astronomy Professor Mark Voit said. “Calculations done by our Michigan State group predict that magnetic fields should help feed the universe’s biggest black holes by channeling cool gas toward them, and it’s amazing to see that happening in these JWST images.”