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Story summary
- NASA released a James Webb image of Messier 77, whose bright core outshines the galaxy.
- Messier 77 lies about 45 million light-years away in the Cetus constellation.
- Its active nucleus contains a supermassive black hole of roughly eight million solar masses that heats infalling gas.
- Near-infrared data reveal a central bar, a starburst ring at the spiral-arm junction, and diffraction spikes caused by Webb’s hexagonal mirror segments and secondary-mirror struts.
