The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a hidden structure in the heart of the Squid Galaxy, also known as M77 or NGC 1068. This galaxy, located about 35 million light-years away, is a prototype of its kind, featuring a supermassive black hole at its core. The Squid Galaxy's proximity to the Milky Way and its brightness, with a broadside directly facing us, make it an excellent laboratory for understanding the dynamics of an active galactic nucleus. However, the galaxy's dusty center makes it challenging to peer into its heart. Fortunately, the JWST's infrared capabilities have allowed it to reveal features that cannot be seen in optical, ultraviolet, or radio wavelengths.
The new images show a ribbon of stars, gas, and dust, known as a bar structure, across the center of the spiral galaxy. This bar structure is not visible in optical wavelengths, and the images cut through the massive volumes of dust in the center to reveal details around the core. The mass at the center is estimated to be around 13 million times the mass of the Sun, but its form is still unclear. Recent evidence suggests that two supermassive black holes may lurk at the center, locked in a tight binary orbit.
The JWST imagery also reveals scattered brightly glowing regions colored red, which are pockets of star formation created in the gas and dust along the galaxy's spiral arms. A star begins to form when a pocket of gas becomes dense enough to collapse under gravity, turning into the seed of a star. A bright ring of star formation around the center of the galaxy, a few thousand light-years in diameter, is known as a starburst ring. This ring has been well-studied in the Squid Galaxy, and astronomers believe it formed as a natural result of the galaxy's architecture, which gravitationally concentrates gas in that region.
In 2022, scientists traced a high-energy neutrino directly to the heart of the Squid Galaxy, suggesting that it could be a giant atomic particle accelerator. If confirmed, it would be one of only a handful identified beyond the Milky Way. The galactic nucleus consumes material at a rate equivalent to around 0.23 times the mass of the Sun each year, generating a significant amount of energy. High-energy neutrinos are born in extremely energetic situations but are very hard to trace.
The JWST's ability to reveal secrets not normally visible to our eyes may help answer some of the most intriguing questions about the universe. The images of the Squid Galaxy are available for download in wallpaper sizes from the ESA Webb website.
