Another First for the JWST: It Detects Three Supermassive Black Holes in the Same Galaxy
JWST detected broad hydrogen and oxygen lines from three feeding black holes, including two only 620 light-years apart, researchers said.
- Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope identified three actively accreting black holes in J0148-4214, the earliest known example of such a triple system as observed roughly 1.15 billion years after the Big Bang.
- The BlackTHUNDER observing program utilized the NIRSpec Integrated Field Unit to analyze ionized hydrogen, detecting broad H-alpha emission lines that serve as a fingerprint for active galactic nuclei.
- Two black holes sit near the galaxy's center, while a third lurks about 5,500 light-years away; their masses range from roughly 600,000 to 80 million times the mass of the Sun.
- Data indicates multiple massive black hole systems were likely common in the early Universe, suggesting mergers provided a fast growth route; Hannah from the MPE noted this is the first evidence of three active black holes in a distant galaxy.
- Projections suggest the two central black holes will merge in about 700 million years, and descendants of systems like J0148-4214 could eventually become targets for LISA, the planned space-based gravitational-wave observatory.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Scientists find 3 supermassive black holes on the verge of collision inside a distant galaxy
A trio of heavyweight black holes are entangled in a dance of death that will quite possibly see them gradually all merge to form an even greater behemoth.Scientists have discovered the black holes in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken 12.5 billion years to reach us, meaning we see it as it was less than 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang. And it's offering strong supporting evidence that one of the ways black holes grew so massi…
Another First for the JWST: It Detects Three Supermassive Black Holes in the Same Galaxy
Astronomers working with the JWST have found a galaxy only 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang that contains three black holes. Two are close to the galaxy's center and will merge soon. The third is more distant, and is expected to merge much later. The discovery shows that black hole mergers were an important contributor to the masses of the SMBH we find in galaxies today.
Three supermassive black holes discovered in a single galaxy for the first time
An international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has identified three actively accreting supermassive black holes in the galaxy J0148-4214. Matter is falling into the black holes from accretion disks surrounding them.
The new images from the James Webb telescope show a galaxy with a trio of supermassive black holes. Two of them seem to be set in a very tight tango.
The discovery reveals three active supermassive black holes in the galaxy J0148-4214 that are accreting matter through accretion disks around them. This system could help scientists understand how black holes and galaxies co-evolve. Astronomers have discovered, for the first time, three active supermassive black holes in a single galaxy. Every massive galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center, as is the case in the Milky Way, where Sagi…
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