James Webb Space Telescope reveals hidden heart of Centaurus A
08 Jul 2026
New MIRI image marks four years of science operations.
A spectacular new image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed the hidden heart of Centaurus A, a nearby galaxy that bears the scars of a dramatic collision with another galaxy around two billion years ago.
Captured using Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the image peels back thick clouds of dust to reveal intricate structures at the galaxy’s core, including a striking and unexplained S-shaped feature that is prompting new scientific questions. The observations also provide valuable clues about the relationship between supermassive black holes and the galaxies they inhabit.
Located around 11 million light-years from Earth, Centaurus A is one of the nearest active galaxies and is considered an important laboratory for studying how galaxies and black holes evolve together. JWST’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity allows astronomers to see through dust that obscures the galaxy’s centre in visible-light observations, revealing millions of stars and previously hidden activity.
The image has been released to celebrate four years of science operations by JWST, with MIRI continuing to make an impact on our understanding of the Universe. The instrument was developed through an international collaboration, with UK ATC playing a leading role in MIRI’s development, overseeing the instrument’s optical system design, packaging and scientific performance verification, as well as developing the MIRISim simulator and key data-processing algorithms. UK ATC also designed and built the Spectrometer Pre-Optics (SPO), a critical component of MIRI’s spectroscopic capabilities.
