This is important because up till now only nested stellar bars were thought capable of forcing the gas into the center of a galaxy. NGC 3982 is 55 million light years away. The resolution of the dust map is 12 light years. In this galaxy, we see that the same spiral arms extend from the nucleus to the rest of the galaxy. A stellar bar occurs in a galaxy when the orbits of the stars align into orbits with an elongated shape.
Stellar bars are very effective at driving dust and gas radially inward towards the nucleus.
For this reason, bars have been proposed as the mechanism by which active galaxies are fueled. Our images suggest instead that material spirals in towards the center. The scientists say that a full understanding of how the spiral mechanism works requires further theoretical modeling. A further mystery is why more galaxies are not Seyferts. Recent work indicates that most nearby galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, harbor supermassive black holes.