NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a supermassive black hole in the process of feeding. According to ScienceDaily, using materials from the University of Michigan, new images obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope show long gas filaments connecting the galaxy's hot outer atmosphere with the rapidly rotating disk around the central black hole.
The galaxy under study is named NGC 4696 and represents the largest central galaxy in the Centaurus Cluster. It is located approximately 145 million light-years from Earth, allowing astronomers to study it in detail while remaining far enough away to perceive its scale.
A research group led by the University of Montreal, with participation from the University of Michigan, published its findings in an issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 14. The article was titled 'JWST Reveals How Black Holes are Fed: Kiloparsec-scale Multiphase Filaments Feed Subkiloparsec Circumnuclear Disks.'
The main scientific problem is that almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center, whose mass often exceeds the Sun by millions or billions of times, yet scientists still do not know how this giant obtains fuel.
The black hole itself does not emit light; the spectacle is created by gas and dust falling onto it, which leads to heating and the formation of an active galactic nucleus. This process can also generate jets that heat the surrounding gas, slow down star formation, and contribute to galaxy formation over billions of years.
Despite the fact that black hole jets can heat nearby gas, which should hinder its cooling and subsequent infall into the black hole, the accretion process continues. The NIRSpec instrument of the James Webb Telescope observed NGC 4696 for about eight hours, splitting infrared light to map the composition and movement of the gas. ScienceDaily reports that the observations allowed for the resolution of structures measuring about 30 light-years.
The maps showed that the S-shaped structure near the galaxy's center is a rotating gas disk around the black hole, extending nearly 800 light-years, with some material moving at speeds up to 600 kilometers per second. The main discovery is the connection of this disk to one of the galaxy's large incoming gas filaments, where material moves along the filament and enters the disk feeding the black hole.
Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Michigan, Megan Donahue, noted that the James Webb observations provide 'thousands of new facts and measurements,' which is 'a large amount of information to assimilate.' The arXiv version of the article describes this system as the missing link between large cooling flows and the feeding of black holes on smaller scales, and simulations have confirmed this picture, showing gas condensation from the hot atmosphere, angular momentum loss, and subsequent disk fueling.
Thus, the cycle looks elegant: the black hole emits jets, the jets heat the gas, some of the gas cools, forming filaments, the filaments feed the disk, and the disk feeds the black hole.
It is possible to remove photos and videos from an individual chat or a group on WhatsApp for both Android and iPhone devices. The procedure involves selecting the desired conversation in the 'Chats' tab of the app and then accessing the 'Clear chat' functionality, choosing the types of media you wish to delete.
This cleaning action serves to optimize the device's storage space by eliminating the accumulation of large files received daily. Thus, it ensures faster operating system performance without losing text messages.
For Android users, the process begins by opening WhatsApp and long-pressing the chat or group whose media needs to be removed from internal storage. Subsequently, you must tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and select the 'Clear chat' option. You only need to check the 'Media files only' option and specify which types of media will be deleted. Finally, by clicking 'Clear media', the photos and videos are deleted from the conversation.
On the iPhone, the user must start the process by opening WhatsApp and long-pressing the individual or group conversation to free up space. Next, they must access 'Clear chat' and select the 'Clear media files' option for the chat. After checking the media categories you wish to eliminate from internal storage, the user must tap 'Clear all media' to remove only photos and videos from the group or chat.
WhatsApp does not offer a native function that allows exclusively deleting photos and videos from all conversations or groups simultaneously. Therefore, the cleaning must be done individually, selecting each chat separately. However, there is an alternative for managing space: go to Settings, then 'Storage and data', navigate to 'Manage storage', and finally review and delete the heaviest items.
In case of accidental deletion of photos or videos on WhatsApp, it is possible to recover them if there is a recent cloud backup of the data. The most direct way is to restore the WhatsApp backup associated with Google Drive on Android or iCloud on iPhone. If no recent backup is available, it is recommended to check the phone gallery's trash bin or ask the contact to resend the material, while advising against using unofficial third-party solutions to maintain account security.
The Voyager satellites have changed humanity's perception of the solar system. These spacecraft were launched by NASA in 1977 to study the gas giant planets.
The mission has significantly exceeded its initial goals and continues its journey in space nearly five decades after launch. Today, these human-made artifacts continue their work in interplanetary space.
Boston-based company Neo has announced the raising of $100 million in funding. These funds are intended to protect organizations from threats associated with autonomous software and artificial intelligence agents, helping enterprises secure a growing number of software entities.
The investment was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures. With the secured funds, Neo plans to expand its operations and strengthen its cybersecurity offerings for enterprise clients. The company also intends to accelerate the hiring of engineering and sales teams amid the global growth of AI adoption in the corporate sector.
Neo, founded by cybersecurity veterans from SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks, has developed an agentic software management platform. This system allows security operations teams to monitor, manage, and govern the operation of AI agents, AI-powered applications, browsers, enterprise identities, and traditional software that has gained autonomous capabilities.
According to the company, enterprise software is rapidly transforming due to AI, which grants applications the ability to reason, call tools, and perform tasks independently. Neo believes that existing security platforms were not designed to manage this new generation of intelligent software.
CEO Nick Warner emphasized that organizations require a real-time level of control. This level must allow understanding of AI application behavior while ensuring the safe adoption of new technologies without slowing down innovation. The platform includes a continuously updated software registry, capability and risk analysis, real-time attribution, policy enforcement, and built-in security controls specifically designed for agentic software environments.
Neo asserts that enterprise security teams are facing a rapidly changing threat landscape. This is occurring because employees are using AI tools, and software vendors are integrating autonomous functions into existing business applications. Unlike legacy software, AI agents operate autonomously, retain user access rights, and move between applications, performing actions invisible to typical security monitoring tools.
The company cites research predicting the widespread adoption of agentic capabilities in the enterprise software industry in the coming years, making visibility and governance critical. The firm's Neoverse knowledge base analyzes application functions, risks, and operations, allowing clients to determine which AI-enhanced applications have been granted access and whether their configuration is secure.
Zane Lackey, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, noted that organizations need deeper visibility into AI-based software as employees increasingly use autonomous tools and vendors integrate agentic capabilities into enterprise applications. Bessemer added that 'Neo combines a unique approach to AI security with experienced leadership in enterprise cybersecurity.' He also pointed out that the leadership has proven experience in building and scaling successful enterprise cybersecurity platforms globally.
The founding team possesses many years of cybersecurity experience gained at SentinelOne, Cylance, McAfee, and Forcepoint, as well as service experience in Israel's Unit 8200. With the new funding, Neo plans to expand its platform, helping businesses adopt AI technologies with stronger governance, real-time visibility, and policy enforcement as autonomous software becomes a standard part of business processes.
