  Active galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their center, which
grows by accreting matter from the surrounding galaxy. The accretion process in
the central ~10 parsecs has not been directly resolved in previous
observations, due to the small apparent angular sizes involved. We observed the
active nucleus of the Circinus Galaxy using sub-millimeter interferometry. A
dense inflow of molecular gas is evident on sub-parsec scales. We calculate
that less than 3% of this inflow is accreted by the black hole, with the rest
being ejected by multiphase outflows, providing feedback to the host galaxy.
The observations also reveal a dense gas disk surrounding the inflow; the disk
is gravitationally unstable which drives the accretion into the central ~1
parsec.
