JWST Confirms 2 Supermassive Black Holes 4,900 Light-Years Apart From 1.3 Billion Years After Big Bang
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Aug 13
JWST Confirms 2 Supermassive Black Holes 4,900 Light-Years Apart From 1.3 Billion Years After Big Bang
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Aug 13
Summary
Astronomers identified LID-1166 as the earliest confirmed close pair of actively feeding supermassive black holes, resolving two compact sources inside a merging galaxy when the universe was about 1.3 billion years old.
JWST's NIRSpec separated the hidden pair at just 4,900 light-years, while ALMA found cold gas around each source, supporting the case that both are active galactic nuclei in two galaxies nearing merger.
The system is unusually important because earlier dual-black-hole candidates from the young universe were typically tens of thousands of light-years apart, making LID-1166 the first confirmed case this compact at such an early epoch.
Researchers say the finding offers a direct look at a merger phase thought to drive rapid black-hole growth, though outside experts said follow-up analysis should still confirm the second signal is not residual glow from one source.