JWST interferometric imaging reveals the dusty torus obscuring the supermassive black hole of Circinus galaxy

The dusty and molecular torus is an elusive structure surrounding supermassive black holes, yet its importance is unequivocal for understanding feedback and accretion mechanisms. The torus and accretion disk feed the inspiraling gas onto the active nucleus, launching outflows that fundamentally connect the active nucleus's activity to the host galaxy. In this work, we utilize the aperture-masking interferometric mode onboard the JWST to achieve a resolution of 0.08" at 4.3 μm and bring out the fainter features in the central 10 pc of the Circinus galaxy. We show that most of the dust mass is located along the equatorial axis in the form of a 5 × 3 pc disk feeding the active nucleus. Only < 1% of the dust emission arises from an arc structure composed of hot dust entrained in a molecular and ionized outflow, while the extended emission is associated with dust heated by the active galaxy at large scales.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-01-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66010-5
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
23.83

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article

JWST interferometric imaging reveals the dusty torus obscuring the supermassive black hole of Circinus galaxy

I. García-Bernete, Robert Nikutta, Enrique López-Rodríguez, Deepashri Thatte et al.
1 citations
Nature Communications
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
23.83
article

JWST interferometric imaging reveals the dusty torus obscuring the supermassive black hole of Circinus galaxy

I. García-Bernete, Robert Nikutta, Enrique López-Rodríguez, Deepashri Thatte, M. Hankins, Julien H. Girard, Joel Sanchez-Bermudez, Ryan M. Lau, Omaira González-Martín
article en
1 citations

Abstract

The dusty and molecular torus is an elusive structure surrounding supermassive black holes, yet its importance is unequivocal for understanding feedback and accretion mechanisms. The torus and accretion disk feed the inspiraling gas onto the active nucleus, launching outflows that fundamentally connect the active nucleus's activity to the host galaxy. In this work, we utilize the aperture-masking interferometric mode onboard the JWST to achieve a resolution of 0.08" at 4.3 μm and bring out the fainter features in the central 10 pc of the Circinus galaxy. We show that most of the dust mass is located along the equatorial axis in the form of a 5 × 3 pc disk feeding the active nucleus. Only < 1% of the dust emission arises from an arc structure composed of hot dust entrained in a molecular and ionized outflow, while the extended emission is associated with dust heated by the active galaxy at large scales.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 17(1)
Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of South Carolina (US), Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Community Science and Data Center (US), NSF NOIRLab (US), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX), Arkansas Tech University (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space Telescope Science Institute, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Astrophysics Division
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
23.83
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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