Skip to main content

These supermassive black holes are cozying up close together

At the center of most galaxies lies a single monster: a supermassive black hole, with a mass millions or even billions of times that of the sun. These lonely beasts typically sit alone in the heart of galaxies, but recent research found two of these monsters nestled close together in the galaxy UGC4211.

The two supermassive black holes originated in two different galaxies which are now merging into one, located relatively close by at a distance of 500 million light-years from Earth. The pair is among the closest black hole binaries ever observed, sitting just 750 light-years apart, and was observed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

Artist’s conception showing late-stage galaxy merger and its two central black holes.
Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look deep into the heart of the pair of merging galaxies known as UGC 4211 discovered two black holes growing side by side, just 750 light-years apart. This artist’s conception shows the late-stage galaxy merger and its two central black holes. The binary black holes are the closest together ever observed in multiple wavelengths. ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. Weiss (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

These are hungry black holes as well, as both members of the pair are growing in size. That surprised scientists, as they had expected to find a more sedate pairing. “Simulations suggested that most of the population of black hole binaries in nearby galaxies would be inactive because they are more common, not two growing black holes like we found,” explained lead author Michael Koss in a statement.

Recommended Videos

It could be that close black hole binaries like this one are actually quite common in the universe. The research is also relevant to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, as we are set to crash into the Andromeda galaxy in around 4.5 billion years’ time, and the merging galaxies of UGC4211 give an idea of what that process could look like.

As well as the data from ALMA, which is a ground-based array of many telescopes looking in the radio wavelength, the researchers used data from other sources like the space-based Hubble telescope which observes in the visible light wavelength, and X-ray instruments which provided another view.

“Each wavelength tells a different part of the story,” said co-author Ezequiel Treister. “While ground-based optical imaging showed us the whole merging galaxy, Hubble showed us the nuclear regions at high resolutions. X-ray observations revealed that there was at least one active galactic nucleus in the system. And ALMA showed us the exact location of these two growing, hungry supermassive black holes. All of these data together have given us a clearer picture of how galaxies such as our own turned out to be the way they are, and what they will become in the future.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Event Horizon Telescope can now take images of black holes that are 50% sharper
Illustration of the highest-resolution detections ever made from the surface of Earth

The Event Horizon Telescope project, the group that took the first-ever image of a black hole, has made another historic breakthrough, making the highest-ever resolution observations of space taken from the Earth's surface. The project uses facilities around the globe to turn the Earth itself into a giant observatory, which is capable of taking highly precise measurements of distant galaxies.

The latest observations made use of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a large array of radio telescopes located in Chile, as well as other facilities in Spain, France, and Hawaii. To get higher-resolution images than previous observations, scientists weren't able to make the telescope bigger -- as it was already the size of the Earth -- so they observed at a higher frequency instead.

Read more
Hubble finds mysterious and elusive black hole
An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole.

An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence of the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)

There's something strange about black holes. Astronomers often find small black holes, which are between five times and 100 times the mass of the sun. And they often find huge supermassive black holes, which are hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the sun or even larger. But they almost never find black holes in between those two sizes.

Read more
NASA 360-degree video shows what it’s like to plunge into a black hole
A black hole according to NASA's 360-degree video.

360 Video: NASA Simulation Shows a Flight Around a Black Hole

If you were having a bad day, plunging into a black hole would be enough to really top it off. Apparently, you’d experience a process known as “spaghettification” in which the black hole’s enormous gravitational force would compress your entire body while stretching it out at the same time, leaving you a bit noodle-like. Falling into a supermassive black hole would be a slightly less horrendous experience, apparently.

Read more