Anatomy of an Active Galactic Nucleus
An active galactic nucleus, or AGN, is a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy that is consuming surrounding matter. Although the black hole itself is not visible, the structures around it emit light across many wavelengths. The artist’s concepts here highlight distinct structures that can accompany an AGN — the photon ring, accretion disk, corona, dusty torus, and relativistic jets.
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus and its central black hole.
Credit: NASA’ Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus highlighting the photon ring.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus highlighting the accretion disk.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus highlighting the corona.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus highlighting the outer dusty torus.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus highlighting the jets.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
An artist's concept of an active galactic nucleus with various features labeled.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, individual items should be credited as indicated above
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Animator
- Krystofer Kim (eMITS)
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Producer
- Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
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Science writer
- Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland College Park)
Release date
This page was originally published on Friday, November 28, 2025.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 3:40 PM EST.