More than 12.5 billion light-years away from Earth, a single galaxy has been found by astronomers to house three actively feeding supermassive black holes. Headed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), an international research team made this discovery, providing a rare window into how massive black holes grew and interacted during the earliest stages of the universe.
Observations of Galaxy J0148-4214
The three active black holes reside in a distant galaxy designated as J0148-4214. All of these objects are actively accumulating matter that spirals inward through surrounding disks of gas and other material. Because the light from this galaxy has traveled for approximately 12.5 billion years to reach Earth, researchers are observing the system as it existed just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang.
To determine this extreme distance, scientists measure the expansion of the universe, which stretches light to longer and redder wavelengths. For J0148-4214, the team recorded a redshift value of z=5.02. This measurement places the ancient galactic system firmly in the early epochs of cosmic history.
Evidence from the Max Planck Institute
This is the first evidence of three active black holes in a single galaxy in the distant Universe,
says Hannah Übler, research group leader at MPE and lead author of the study.
Two of the black holes sit near the core of J0148-4214, separated by a projected distance of only 620 light-years. The third black hole rests much farther out, positioned approximately 5,500 light-years from the galactic center. This spatial distribution provides fresh data regarding how massive black holes assembled during the youth of the cosmos.
It suggests that processes in the early Universe were efficient at bringing massive black holes together, setting the stage for the massive black hole mergers we expect to detect with future gravitational wave observatories,
Übler adds.
Detection via Hydrogen Gas Spectroscopy
The research team identified the triple black hole system by analyzing distinctive patterns in light emitted by hydrogen gas. Intense gravitational forces near a black hole accelerate surrounding gas to extreme speeds, leaving recognizable signatures in light spectra that allow detection even when the objects remain visually obscured.
At the center of J0148-4214, the team uncovered a complex hydrogen emission pattern best explained by two closely spaced black holes. Scientists separated these signals using spectro-astrometry, tracking subtle shifts in spectral positions across the galaxy. This method revealed both central black holes despite the telescope’s inability to resolve them as separate points of light.
Black Holes Vary in Size and Feeding Rates
Calculations show that the three black holes vary significantly in size, possessing masses of roughly 80 million, 600,000, and 2 million times the mass of the Sun. The largest object is not the one feeding most aggressively. Instead, its smaller neighbor—with a mass of 600,000 suns—is accumulating matter at a rate exceeding the basic theoretical limits of black hole growth, known as the Eddington limit.
The JWST data allowed us not only to identify the three black holes, but also to estimate their masses, accretion rates, and the stellar mass of the galaxy,
says Dr. Giovanni Mazzolari, second author of the study and a researcher at MPE. The team calculated a total stellar mass of approximately 1.3 billion suns for the host galaxy.
Questions Frequently Asked by Readers
- How far away is galaxy J0148-4214?
- The galaxy is located more than 12.5 billion light-years from Earth, meaning astronomers observe it as it appeared just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang.
- What are the masses of the three black holes?
- The three black holes possess masses of approximately 80 million, 600,000, and 2 million times the mass of the Sun.
- What instrument did researchers use to find them?
- The team used the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Spectrograph in its integral field spectroscopy mode (NIRSpec-IFS).
Did you know? The two central black holes in J0148-4214 are separated by a projected distance of just 620 light-years and are expected to merge within the next few hundred million years.
Roberto Maiolino, professor at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the study, notes that these findings point to black hole merging as an additional, fast route for rapid growth in the early universe. Meanwhile, the third outlying black hole remains a puzzle, potentially serving as the remnant of an earlier merger that was ejected outward by a powerful gravitational recoil.
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