Home / Science / Webb Telescope Captures Black Hole 'Tango'
Webb Telescope Captures Black Hole 'Tango'
12 Aug
Summary
- New images reveal a galaxy with three supermassive black holes.
- Two black holes are remarkably close, appearing to merge soon.
- The discovery dates back to within one billion years of the Big Bang.
New images from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed a remarkable discovery: a young galaxy hosting a trio of active supermassive black holes. This galaxy, located over 12.5 billion light-years away, dates to within one billion years of the Big Bang.
The most striking feature is that two of the supermassive black holes are in such close proximity that they appear to be on the verge of merging. This observation provides vital evidence that black holes have been actively growing and shaping galaxies since the earliest moments of the universe.
Scientists utilized a unique mode of Webb's near-infrared spectrograph to distinguish the three black holes. The analysis revealed hydrogen gas moving at extreme speeds, indicative of the gravitational pull from these growing black holes.
This discovery addresses a significant question in astrophysics: how black holes achieve supermassive sizes so early in cosmic history. The findings suggest that such close pairings and potential mergers of black holes may be common in the early universe.
