Scientists have discovered three supermassive black holes in the galaxy, which are 4 billion light years away.
Astronomers indicate that galaxies are usually built through their merger with smaller galaxies. Usually, all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the core. Merger of galaxies means that the newly-formed galaxy may contain two black holes located at the core near to each other; however, over time, these black holes also merge. The latest discovery of the black holes by an international group of scientists suggests that closely packed supermassive black holes are more common that previously assumed by researchers.
The researchers believe that the latest discovery is significant as it will let scientists understand better how a galaxy evolves and how frequently black holes merge. The scientists also suggest that closely orbiting systems are the foundations of gravitational waves in the Universe. Currently, scientists do not have a lot of information on closely packed black holes.
Roger Deane, of the Cape Town University, South Africa, who is the lead author of the study, says that the black holes are orbiting one another at 300 times the speed of sound on Earth.
"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," says Deane.
The research team say that they performed Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations with the help of radio telescopes. The objective of VLBI was to find the inner two black holes of the "triple system."
Scientists say that the VLBI technique pools signals from big radio antennas, which are separated by around 6,200 miles, or 10,000 kilometers. Using the technique, scientists can view details 50 times finer when compared to the Hubble Space Telescope.
"This exciting discovery perfectly illustrates the power of the VLBI technique, whose exquisite sharpness of view allows us to see deep into the hearts of distant galaxies. The next generation radio observatory - the Square Kilometre Array - is also being designed with VLBI capabilities very much in mind," says Keith Grainge from the University of Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy, who is also a part of the research team.
The research team suggest that usually black holes have a mass that is between 1 million and 10 billion times that of the sun. However, the mass of all the three black holes was around 100 million times that of the sun.
The researchers say that the discovery is significant as it may lead to the design and development of new telescopes that can find binary black holes with higher efficiency.
