Astronomers have found three supermassive black holes on a collision course in a rare cosmic event, situated nearly 1.2 billion light-years from Earth in a system named J1218/1219+1035.
Unlike typical galaxy mergers involving two galaxies, this event features three galaxies coming together,each of them hosting a proactively feeding black hole.
Astrophysicist Emma Schwartzman of the US Naval Research Laboratory stated,“This is incredibly rare.”
“Catching all these black holes proactively deploying jets in a merger moves triple radio active galactic nuclei from theory into reality,” the expert added.
J1218/1219+1035 is only the third such system discovered in the nearby Universe and the first where all three black holes shine in radio light.
Galaxy mergers assisted galaxies and their central black holes grow over time, and while two-galaxy mergers are common, triple mergers are rarely seen.
Initially, the system was detected using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, initially appearing as a merger of two galaxies.
Follow-up observations announced a third galaxy nearly 316,000 light-years away, with a gas tail connecting it to the other two, confirming its involvement.
Astronomers further plan to study the system across several wavelengths for the improved comprehension galaxy and black hole growth and to detect other rare triple mergers.
