This gas needs an enormous amount of energy to shine — more than normal stars can supply. The discovery, based on data from NASA 's James Webb Space Telescope, likely means the barred spiral galaxy, sometimes called Messier 83 or M83, has been harboring an active, supermassive black hole in secret.

The latest discovery marks the first-ever "compelling clue" that a black hole may be present in the enigmatic galaxy, scientists say.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have peered into galaxies that existed at cosmic noon to hunt ravenously feeding black holes and bursts of starbirth.

Remember when NASA was laser focused on that? It was 35 years ago when the Hubble Space Telescope deployed into orbit, sent by a space agency facing an existential crisis. Thirty-five years on, not much seems to have changed.

Hubble was built with a number of instruments onboard, including the Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC), the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), the Faint Object Camera (FOC), the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) and the High Speed Photometer (HSP).