14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists claim to have discovered a trio of supermassive black holes at the heart of a distant galaxy with one really catchy name: SDSS J150243.09+111557.3.
In a paper in the journal Nature, the researchers detail that this galaxy is located at a distance of about 4.2 billion light-years away from our planet.
At first, it was assumed to have just two supermassive black holes at its core. However, more detailed investigations showed it to contain three, EurekAlert reports.
Information shared with the public says that, of these black holes, two orbit each other in a manner similar to that of binary stars, i.e. two stars that form a system and that orbit around their common center of mass.
As detailed in the journal Nature, these three supermassive black holes are believed to be the tightest trio of black holes to have until now been documented at such a considerable distance from our planet.
Commenting on this discovery, Dr. Roger Deane with the Oxford University in the United Kingdom said, “What remains extraordinary to me is that these black holes are orbiting one another at 300 times the speed of sound on Earth.”
Furthermore, “Not only that, but using the combined signals from radio telescopes on four continents we are able to observe this exotic system one third of the way across the Universe.”
“It gives me great excitement as this is just scratching the surface of a long list of discoveries that will be made possible with the Square Kilometer Array [a radio telescope in development in Australia and South Africa].”