JWST Discovers Hidden Bar and Potential Black Hole Duo in the Squid Galaxy

NASA's JWST infrared view of the nearby Squid Galaxy (M77/NGC 1068) uncovers a hidden central bar of stars, gas, and dust and tracks gas motions around a core mass of ~13 million solar masses—possibly a tight binary of supermassive black holes. The images also reveal a bright starburst ring and other star-forming regions along the spiral arms, and the galaxy has been linked to a high-energy neutrino detected in 2022, hinting it could be a giant particle accelerator. JWST can't resolve the black holes directly but will illuminate the nucleus's dynamics.