NASA Captures Supermassive Black Hole "Feasting" On Its Surroundings 60 Million Light-Years Away

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have teamed up to reveal a supermassive black hole at the centre of a spiral galaxy, caught in the act of feeding. Located about 60 million light-years from Earth, the black hole weighs roughly two million times the mass of our Sun, and it's still growing. The joint image shows hot material swirling around it as gravity drags gas and dust into its grasp.

"This black hole is about 60 million light-years from Earth and has a mass of two million Suns-and it's only growing larger," NASA wrote as the caption of a post on Instagram.

According to the space agency, the observation is adding fuel to a long-standing question, which is whether galaxies form first and then grow black holes, or whether massive black holes appear early and help build galaxies around them. Webb's new data may offer clues to how some black holes reach such enormous sizes even when their host galaxies aren't that large.

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The image highlights what these giant space telescopes can do together: Chandra picks up the high-energy X-rays from the superheated disk, while James Webb maps the surrounding structure in infrared, providing scientists with a detailed picture of the black hole's environment.

"A swipe-through photo of a spiral galaxy, focusing on the supermassive black hole in its center. The scene is mostly monochrome except for the purple glow of the galaxy's core on the left side of the image and flecks of red and purple surrounding it. Pale gas and dust swirls around it," NASA wrote while describing the images.

"We're feeling the exact same way! Should we bring the drinks?" the European Space Agency (ESA) wrote in the comment section.