Circinus Galaxy (Hubble and Webb)

stsci_2026-105b January 13th, 2026

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, E. Lopez-Rodriguez (USC), and D. Thatte (STScI) Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows a full view of the Circinus galaxy, a nearby spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away. The inset highlights a Webb close-up of the galaxy’s core, where infrared observations pierce through dust to reveal hot material feeding its central supermassive black hole. Webb’s image, made using the Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) tool on its NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument, isolates hot dust in the immediate surroundings of the supermassive black hole, revealing that most of the infrared emission comes from a compact, dusty structure feeding the black hole rather than from outflowing material. In the Webb image, the inner face of the torus glows in infrared light, while the darker areas represent where the outer ring is blocking light.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/circinus-galaxy-hubble-and-webb/

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright