Webb Telescope Could Have Uncovered a Surprising Mystery of a Spiral Galaxy

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Scientists have found an unusual neon glow near the center of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy for the first time. This gas needs an enormous amount of energy to shine — more than normal stars can supply. The discovery, based on data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, likely means the barred spiral galaxy, sometimes called Messier 83 or M83, has been harboring an active, supermassive black hole in secret. The new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, upends prior thinking about the galaxy. Previously, it was assumed that if there were a hole in its heart, it would be dormant and certainly not shooting out high-energy radiation. "Before Webb, we simply did not have the tools to detect such faint and highly ionized gas signatures in M83's nucleus," said Svea Hernandez, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement. "We are finally able to explore these hidden depths of the galaxy and uncover what was once invisible."

<div>Dust and gas obscure the view to extremely distant and inherently dim light sources, but infrared waves can pierce through the clouds.</div>
<div>Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration</div>

Black holes are some of the most inscrutable phenomena in outer space. About 50 years ago, they were little more than a theory — a kooky mathematical answer to a physics problem. Even astronomers at the top of their field weren't entirely convinced they existed. Today, not only are black holes accepted science, they're being observed through advanced technology employing synchronized radio dishes around the globe. Unlike a planet or star, black holes don't have surfaces. Instead, they possess a boundary called an "event horizon," or a point of no return. If anything swoops too close, it will fall in, never to escape the hole's gravitational grasp.

The most common kind, called a stellar black hole, is thought to be the result of an enormous star dying in a supernova explosion. The star's material then collapses onto itself, condensing into a relatively tiny area. However, how supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times more massive than the sun, form is even more elusive than typical stellar black holes. Many astrophysicists and cosmologists believe these invisible giants lurk at the center of virtually all galaxies. Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations have supported the theory that supermassive black holes begin in the dusty cores of starburst galaxies, where new stars are rapidly assembled, but scientists are still investigating the details.

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy — about 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra — is one such starburst galaxy. It has puzzled scientists for decades as they struggled to find signs of a black hole at its center. Webb, a collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies, was initially designed to study the early universe, star formation, and distant galaxies. However, its extreme sensitivity to infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes, allows it to uncover clues that other telescopes couldn't, said Linda Smith, a co-author on the paper. Infrared light can penetrate dust, which often blocks other forms of light. This capability gives Webb an edge in studying areas where stars are forming or where giant black holes might be active. Though the detected signals strongly suggest the presence of a black hole, the team is considering other possible sources, such as powerful shock waves moving through space or unusually massive stars. The researchers plan to follow up their observations with other telescopes to explore the galaxy in different ways. "Now we have fresh evidence that challenges past assumptions," Smith stated.