Dust and water discovered surprisingly close to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole by Webb Telescope

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has found that dust and water can form and survive remarkably close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Observations of the evolved star IRS 3, located just 0.55 light-years from Sagittarius A*, revealed clear signatures of oxygen-rich dust and, for the first time, water in its surrounding envelope. This discovery indicates that even in the intense radiation environment near a supermassive black hole, evolved stars can still produce materials crucial for the formation of future stars and planets.