James Webb Telescope images reveal feeding cycle of supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 4696

The James Webb Space Telescope obtained high‑resolution infrared images of the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696, located about 145 million light‑years away in the Centaurus cluster. The observations show cold gas filaments extending from the hot galactic atmosphere into a rotating disk roughly 800 light‑years across that surrounds the central supermassive black hole. The gas moves at about 600 km s⁻¹, confirming a self‑regulating feedback loop in which the black‑hole’s energetic jets heat surrounding gas, the gas cools, condenses into filaments, and the cooled material falls back to feed the black hole. These findings, published in *The Astrophysical Journal Letters*, resolve a long‑standing question about how supermassive black holes continue to grow despite powerful outflows and provide new insight into galaxy evolution.