宇宙中几乎每个大型星系的中心都存在著超大质量黑洞，它们透过吞噬周围物质来生长，同时也会喷射出强大的能量喷流。这些喷流会加热周围的气体，阻碍恒星的形成并影响整个星系的发展。然而，科学家一直困惑于为何黑洞在吹走作为其「燃料」的气体后，仍能持续生长而不会耗尽能量。

为了填补这一谜团，研究人员提出假设：被加热吹走的气体最终会在星际空间冷却，并凝结成被称为「纤维状结构」的细长气体流，最后再次落回黑洞。近期，由蒙特娄大学领导的国际团队利用韦伯太空望远镜观察了半人马座星系团的中心星系 NGC 4696，并首次直接证实了这些纤维状结构与中心黑洞之间的联系。

观测与模拟结果显示，这些冷却凝结的气体会沿著纤维状结构流入黑洞周围由气体组成的旋转圆盘中，最终作为燃料供给黑洞，形成了一个完美的「宇宙回收系统」。此外，由于气体从不同方向流入，气体盘的旋转轴会发生摆动，使能量喷流的方向随之改变，进而均匀地加热星系团中心区域，防止气体过度冷却。

Almost every large galaxy in the universe hosts a supermassive black hole at its center, which grows by consuming surrounding matter while simultaneously emitting powerful energy jets. These jets heat the nearby gas, delaying star formation and influencing the overall growth of the galaxy. However, this has created a puzzle for scientists as to why black holes do not run out of fuel and continue to grow, even after blowing away the very gas that feeds them.

To explain this mystery, researchers hypothesized that the gas blown away by the heat eventually cools in interstellar space, condensing into thin, thread-like structures called filaments that fall back toward the black hole. Recently, an international team led by researchers from the University of Montreal utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the central galaxy NGC 4696 in the Centaurus Cluster, directly confirming the connection between these filaments and the central black hole for the first time.

Observations and computer simulations revealed that the condensed gas flows along these filaments directly into a rotating gas disk around the black hole, ultimately supplying it with fuel in a perfect "cosmic recycling system." Furthermore, because the filamentary gas flows in from multiple directions, the disk's axis wobbles, causing the energy jets to shift directions and heat the central region of the galaxy cluster more uniformly, which prevents the gas from cooling excessively.