NASA’s Hubble and Chandra Uncover a Supermassive Black Hole Duo
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Like two Sumo wrestlers locked in combat, the closest confirmed pair of supermassive black holes has been observed in close proximity. Situated about 300 light-years apart, these black holes were detected using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Buried deep within two merging galaxies, they are powered by infalling gas and dust, shining brightly as active galactic nuclei (AGN). This AGN pair is the closest ever detected in the local universe through multiwavelength (visible and X-ray) observations. While dozens of 'dual' black holes have been found before, their separations are usually much larger than those in the galaxy MCG-03-34-64. Radio telescopes have detected an even closer pair of binary black holes, but they haven't been confirmed in other wavelengths. AGN binaries like these were more common in the early universe when galaxy collisions occurred more frequently. This discovery offers a rare, up-close look at a nearby example, abou...