The pair are close to merging into a single giant black hole
A duet of extremely active black holes discovered in the heart of a distant galaxy are believed to be just 10,000 lightyears apart, according to the latest observations.
The pair, known as J0749+2255, are thought to be quasars. These are supermassive black holes gorging on the gas surrounding them, with the turbulence from this feeding frenzy superheating the gas, causing it to glow exceptionally brightly.
The two were most likely to have been brought together during a merger of two galaxies that will eventually form a giant elliptical galaxy. The pair are so far away we are seeing them as they were when the Universe was just three billion years old.
“We don’t see a lot of double quasars at this early time in the Universe. And that’s why this discovery is so exciting,” says Yu-Ching Chen of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who led the follow-up study using the Hubble Space Telescope. hubblesite.org