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James Webb reveals ultramassive black holes and dusty star formation

scienceMay 12, 20268129

The James Webb Space Telescope imaged a record ultramassive black-hole pair that together weigh roughly 60 billion times the mass of the Sun and have cleared a roughly 3,200-light-year starless core in their host galaxy. Webb also captured dusty ribbon structures around the young star cluster NGC 346, revealing active star formation embedded in dust lanes that optical telescopes missed. These observations show Webb's infrared power to both expose hidden stellar nurseries and reveal how ultramassive black holes can sculpt galactic centers, improving models of black hole and galaxy coevolution.

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