Astronomers have found that a nearby galaxy’s black hole is blasting out a far more powerful and hidden gas outflow than previously realized. Studying NGC 1068, a well-known galaxy with an actively feeding black hole at its center, researchers combined new infrared observations with existing data to map how the black hole’s energy is reshaping the surrounding gas. The results are reported in a paper published Aug. 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Shaping how galaxies evolve
As matter falls into supermassive black holes, it releases huge amounts of energy, driving powerful winds or outflows from the galaxy’s center. These outflows can heat the surrounding gas, expel gas and stir up the star-forming material in the galaxy, preventing it from forming new stars. They can also cut off the gas supply to the central black hole, regulating how galaxies evolve.
Estimating how much gas is expelled can help test theoretical models of galaxy evolution against real observations. However, much of the outflowing gas may be hidden behind thick dust, which blocks optical observations and makes detection difficult.
In this study, researchers led by Cosimo Marconcini of the University of Florence investigated the outflows from the actively accreting black hole at the center of NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77 or the Squid Galaxy. It is a barred spiral galaxy located around 45 million light-years away (about 265 quintillion miles). Its supermassive black hole weighs somewhere between 8 million and 17 million solar masses.
The team used mid-infrared observations from the James Webb Space Telescope because mid-infrared light passes through dust far more easily, offering a chance to see gas that is invisible to optical telescopes. They combined the new JWST/MIRI integral field spectroscopy with archival optical data (VLT/MUSE) and millimeter-wave data (ALMA). The mid-infrared spectroscopy revealed more than 20 different ionized-gas emission lines and 7 warm molecular hydrogen transitions.
Hide and seek
The researchers used optical and mid-infrared emission-line ratios to determine which mechanism dominates. They found that the outflow is genuinely powered by the AGN, not star formation.
They then found that the outflow has two distinct components: one visible to normal optical telescopes and a second, dust-shrouded component detected only in infrared light. The second component was moving roughly 300 kilometers per second faster (about 670,000 miles per hour) and carries most of the outflow’s total mass.
The outflow reached speeds of up to 2,000 kilometers per second (about 1.2 million miles per hour). That means a substantial share of this black hole’s violent, high-speed outflow has been hiding in plain sight, undetected by widely used methods.
To pin down exactly how much gas and energy this hidden outflow carries, the team used two specialized modeling tools. Compared with standard estimation methods, the team’s approach found that the outflow’s true mass, energy and momentum were up to 100 times larger than previously thought. In total, several million solar masses of ionized gas are being blown outward from the galaxy’s center.
Lost forever?
The team also checked whether this gas could ever fall back toward the black hole. Comparing the outflow’s speed with the galaxy’s escape velocity, they found the gas is moving several times faster than needed to escape entirely. This suggests that some of the gas could become unbound and escape the galaxy rather than eventually falling back.
Furthermore, the outflow’s momentum was found to be larger than what AGN radiation alone is expected to produce. This may suggest that the galaxy’s radio jet also contributes mechanically alongside the wind.
“The large outflow energetics also suggests a possible contribution from the co-spatial radio jet in driving the outflowing gas and injecting large mechanical work,” they write in the paper.
Altogether, the results suggest that mid-infrared observations, paired with advanced modeling, may be necessary to accurately measure how black holes reshape their host galaxies. They also highlight the limitations of standard methods.
“Our findings illustrate the drastic change of scenario that can emerge when properly evaluating the true outflow energetics,” the researchers write.
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Publication details
C. Marconcini et al, MIRACLE III. JWST/MIRI expose the hidden role of the AGN outflow in NGC 1068, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2026). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202558543
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A famous galaxy’s black hole has been hiding its most violent behavior (2026, September 15)
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