Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers reports that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The observations, described by ESA in an article published on 11 August 2026, focus on the evolved star IRS 3, located just 0.55 light-years from the black hole.

IRS 3 is near the end of its life, in a phase called the asymptotic giant branch, during which such stars shed gas into space through powerful winds. This material is a major source of cosmic dust, but whether it could be produced so near a supermassive black hole was unclear. Analysing the star's infrared light with Webb's MIRI instrument, the team identified two strong signatures of oxygen-rich silicate dust and, for the first time for this object, detected water in the star's surrounding envelope. The continuous mid-infrared spectrum collected for the star shows its chemical identity differs from earlier suggestions that it could be carbon-rich.

The researchers reconstructed the envelope's structure, finding a layered, shell-like distribution of dust extending roughly 10 000 astronomical units from the star, with temperatures falling from about 1200 Kelvin near the star to around 100 Kelvin in outer regions. They estimate the star's mass at approximately six times that of the Sun and its age at around 72 million years, and say it is undergoing intense mass loss. Lead author Florian Peißker of the University of Cologne said the results show dust production remains remarkably resilient; co-author Macarena Garcia Marin of ESA said the water detection shows molecular material can survive intense radiation. The observations were made in 2025 under the MICONIC programme.