Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2024

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024 incident with the bright optical points of light seen with Hubble. We put these pieces together and concluded that we were likely look- ing at two closely spaced supermas- sive black holes,” said Falcão. To support their interpretation, the researchers used archival radio data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array near Socorro, New Mexico. The energetic black hole duo also emits powerful radio waves. “When you see bright light in optical, X- rays, and radio wavelengths, a lot of things can be ruled out, leaving the conclusion these can only be ex- plained as close black holes. When you put all the pieces together it gives you the picture of the AGN duo,” said Falcão. The third source of bright light seen by Hubble is of unknown origin, and more data is needed to under- stand it. That might be gas that is shocked by energy from a jet of ultra high-speed plasma fired from one of the black holes, like a stream of water from a garden hose blast- ing into a pile of sand. “We wouldn’t be able to see all of these intricacies without Hubble’s amazing resolution,” said Falcão. The two supermassive black holes were once at the core of their re- spective host galaxies. A merger be- tween the galaxies brought the black holes into close proximity. They will continue to spiral closer together until they eventually merge – in perhaps 100 million years – rattling the fabric of space and time as gravitational waves. A Hubble Space Telescope visi- ble-light image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064. Hubble’s sharp view reveals three distinct bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy’s center (expanded in an inset image at upper right). Two of these bright spots are the source of strong X-ray emission, a telltale sign that they are supermassive black holes. The black holes shine brightly because they are convert- ing infalling matter into energy, and blaze across space as active galactic nuclei. Their separation is about 300 light-years. The third spot is a blob of bright gas. The blue streak pointing to the 5 o’clock position may be a jet fired from one of the black holes. The pair is the result of a collision between two galaxies that will eventually merge. [NASA, ESA, Anna Trindade Falcão (CfA) − Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)] !